Steppenwolf Theatre Company Blog – Chicago Theater, World-Class Ensemble

So, here’s how the week started. I arrived at the office on Tuesday morning to an email from an actor in our Huck Finn cast. He regretted to inform me that he had been offered another job that conflicted with Huck Finn, and decided to accept it and drop out of our cast. Bear in mind, this actor was cast and committed to Huck Finn in October, and had participated in a workshop in early November, during which material was customized to his particular talents. He was now dropping out of the show 13 days prior to the first rehearsal.

It’s rare one is given a public forum, and I do not intend to abuse the privilege any more than I just have in exercise of vengeful feelings. But this incident points up some pretty interesting issues. Our play Huck Finn itself is at least in part about the formation of a system of values in a complicated reality, so I examine the event in that light.

First, we will replace the actor, and I have no doubt, successfully. Except for my admission on this page, it’s unlikely anyone will know the difference. This is a testament to the incredible depth of the actor talent pool in Chicago, the resources of our casting director Erica Daniels, and the pervasive work ethic here that when a job needs doing, people of talent dedicate themselves to doing it.

Second, it’s worth considering this actor’s position, and why he chose to do what he did. The other job will pay him more, and run longer. This was, I suspect, a financial rather than artistic decision. Actors are frequently asked to make these kinds of choices, at least in part because of the difficulty of making a living as an actor in the first place. As theater-makers, we are a marginal group in wider society, and our work is valued only marginally. It is a sad circumstance to live almost constantly in a state of weighing keeping one’s word against providing for one’s family.

Third, for every story like the above, an actor can tell you a story about committing to a role, at times turning down other work, and then being caught short: the company decides they can’t afford to do the play originally scheduled and substitutes a different one, or can’t obtain the performance rights, or the company itself folds, or a producer demands his girlfriend play the role the actor was promised, or a more well known actor suddenly became available.

So, was the actor justified? I don’t know. But I do know I’m a bit more mournful about the way in which ideals can collide with reality.

This entry was posted by Edward Sobel on Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 8:24 am and is filed under Huck Finn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.