Our co-author of the long musical has, according to several actors who've contacted me, continued to give acting direction to them. I was promised this would not happen. I haven't even begun doing any acting direction, as we've been assembling and blocking and all that stuff. Today and tomorrow actors get notes. So, I called him and put my foot down and said no contact with the actors other than hello, goodbye, and compliments. Period. Once again, he promised. If he has notes, he can give them to me. It's really bad when this stuff happens - when a writer goes to an actor and says "bring it down" the actor doesn't always know how to interpret that, because it's a pretty amorphous thing to say. Bring WHAT down? One line, the entire thing - and what you're usually left with is NOTHING. Whereas if you're specific and say "maybe a little less on this line" an actor knows exactly what you're talking about and doesn't turn the performance into boring. And I don't have time to fix anyone else's "direction." My assistant and the stage manager have been instructed to stop anything like this should they see it happening. And the actors have received an e-mail saying they should come to the stage manager if they're receiving any acting direction from anyone other than the director. Hopefully we'll get through the next few days without incident.
