Clearing the Mixed Signals

After writing that angry blog post of mine, I went over to All-The-Way & Killer's house in tears. All-The-Way calmed me down. She assured me that I WOULD be going to London. And that she would do everything in her power to make it so. She even suggested that she could understudy the roles I'm assigned in addition to her own, so that they'd be covered if I left town. (She is leaving town in November as well, so I could return that favor pretty easily.)

I woke up yesterday morning and Skyped Phil. I had explained the Equity weeks terror of the day before in an e-mail, and had encouraged him to pray about it. He was upset, but trying to be positive. I had decided to try to talk with the head of the program. Phil coached me on what to say in order to try to get positive responses.

Remind him that I asked for permission.
Don't mention that I'm leaving the country.
Mention that they weren't originally going to have understudies for this production at all.
Don't mention that I'm upset because I really, really, really want to see my boyfriend.

So, taking a cue from Cher in Clueless, I put on my most capable-looking outfit, and I went to school.

I knocked on Head-of-Program's door... He was actually down the hall, but he saw me and came to meet me. He actually seemed happier to see me than he usually did. I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact that he thought he was solving my Equity problem with his understudy plan, and that he could be my big hero that morning.

Head of Program: Good morning, Angela. What can I do for you?

Angela: Hey [HoP]. I heard that the way we are getting the rest of our Equity weeks might be from understudying [Big Broadway-Bound Musical].

HoP: (grinning) Yes. You will be.

Angela: Okay. That's great. If you remember, I have a trip scheduled (HoP puts on stern expression) during the period of time that [Big Broadway-Bound Musical] is in performances, (HoP stares at me without changing expression, so I tiptoe carefully), and I was wondering... if that will... affect things... with my understudying.

HoP: It'll affect things a lot. (vaguely threatening) You DO want your Equity card, don't you?

Angela: Yes, of course.

HoP: Then you can't go on your trip.

Angela: Would it be possible to be an understudy for only part of the run? I only need two weeks.

HoP: I just really don't think that would be allowed by Equity.

Angela: Well, I know that [All-the-Way] has a trip scheduled during the same time period. Would it be possible for us to take on each other's understudy roles in addition to our own and...

HoP: I just don't know, Angela. (sternly) See, this is exactly why we tell you not to make travel arrangements without asking us, because the schedule changes and...

A: But I did ask you.

HoP: (puzzled, but still stern) Which trip are we talking about?

A: The one I scheduled for the beginning of December, which you said I could go on because I wasn't in rehearsals or understudying anything at that time.

HoP: (defensive) Well, I really don't know. We're still figuring all of this out. This all just thrown at us. I really don't know. I'm working on it...



And then he literally walked out of his own office, leaving me standing there.

Honestly, I think he was most spooked by the fact that he, himself, in person, and in an e-mail, had granted me permission to go on this trip. I have four (yes, FOUR) other classmates who booked trips in November thinking that we had nothing scheduled... But THEY didn't ask permission. So he knew he could escape their anger by hopping through his own conveniently placed loop-hole (he rarely grants permission for trips if he can avoid it in order to eke out of situations like this one... It took weeks, multiple e-mails, and a scheduled, in-person meeting in order to get him to give me an answer about my trip).

But with me, he given a rare grant of permission. (One that my classmates originally said I shouldn't ask for... They said it was totally fine to leave if I had no commitments, that it wasn't a big deal to miss our totally-pointless-and-often-cancelled class, and that it was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission anyway). He might not have been able to remember it, but he knows that I am not a rule-breaker (usually). And I think he knew I would hold him accountable for that.

I hopped in the tour van and went on the road with my cast, completely unsettled.

I sent the above conversation to Phil (thank goodness my cell phone has e-mail capabilities). Phil was angry with HoP, threw out some insults, and suggested that I try to go over his head.

Then HoP sent an e-mail asking us to all tell him how many Equity weeks we had acquired thus far (not including our upcoming season). So we called Equity, passed around my cell phone, and each of us had them look up our weeks. And then I e-mailed everyone's hours to him via cell-phone (seriously, what did people do before modern technology?).

With the exceptions of Killer (who had weeks before he got here) and Newbie (who did her 1st-year twice, and had weeks from both times), we all had 26 weeks. D-Train, despite this, was going to be fine for weeks, as he is cast in [Big Broadway-Bound Musical], and thus has a 30-week season this year.

So our next e-mail from HoP stated that the other 7 of us (All-The-Way, Iceman, O.D., Thrill, Two-Shots-Up, Wifey, and Me) would be understudying [Big Broadway-Bound Musical].

And then he wrote:

We will decide how to make use of you in the next few weeks, but you should plan on being around in order to provide support in the production when needed. Stay tuned. At the very least it’s chance to observe and be a part of this production.

As to travel issues, we can work them out.

To me, that last sentence meant one thing...

I'm going to London.

I know that's not a guarantee of any sort as to how this is all going to play out. They might decide that they, in fact, cannot work it out. Or they might be angry when they find out that the amount of time I originally requested to leave and the amount of time I will actually be gone don't line up...

But at this point, even if they don't want me to go, I don't think they have a good enough case to stop me.

Also, my classmates totally owe me... because if I hadn't asked for permission, they wouldn't be able to go on their trips in November. See? Sometimes it pays to be a rule-follower.

And sometimes, it means that things like this get to happen:

See all that happiness?

We'll be revisiting that in about 39 days.

And we're pretty ecstatic about that.

May things work out in the end.

~A~