I finished watching the Jerome Robbins doc - very good. Can you imagine one of today's self-obsessed "actors" working with someone like Robbins? The person who caused trouble here last week has repeatedly said I was very difficult to work with and that none of the actors at the Chance Theater liked me. First off, if that's true they sure never said it to me, and several of them have continued to work with me. I had problems with two actors in that production (three, once it opened) - and I had to be very hard on them, and with good reason. One of them came through with a terrific performance because of it, and one remained impossible (the troublemaker). The other actor was wonderful through opening weekend, then proceeded to change everything that worked about the performance until it was a caricature and awful. My point is, at no time was I anything remotely like the tough taskmaster that Robbins was. Robbins would have fired the two actors or he would have destroyed them verbally. But today's breed of actor is all about the actor being in control, the actor making all the decisions, the actor, the actor, the actor - selfish and ultimately harmful behavior - to themselves and to the directors and to the piece. End of rant.
