Nothing but Flowers
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
I received a very odd phone call at work today.
It went something like this:
Me: (give my standard greeting)
Him: Hi, I um. I'm an alum. Graduated in the 70's.
Me: Hi, how can I help you?
Him: I'm sorry to call, but I saw your name on the poster for a show,
David and Lisa, that you're producing.
Me: Yes, it opens this weekend. Are you interested in purchasing a
ticket?
Him: No, um, can't, no I can't can't afford the ticket. can I get a
complimentary ticket? I could provide references.
Me: I'm sorry, we don't normally give complimentary tickets to our shows
Him: well could, could, could I, could I work the house?
Me: I could put you in touch with the production manager to see if he
still needs ticket sellers. May I give you his email address?
Him: no, no, email isn't good. no. no.
Me: well, could I call you back after I check with him?
Him: no, no, can't call, can't call, why don't I call you. is there a
dress rehearsal I could go to?
Me: Well, sir, I'd have to check with the director and stage manager to see about that. There probably is a dress rehearsal Wednesday, but I'm not sure it will
be open to the public.
Him: Wednesday, wednesday. but today is wednesday. today is wednesday.
Me: No sir, I'm sorry, today is Tuesday.
Him: No, wednesday. 2 day weekend, then yesterday, then the holiday.
today is wednesday.
Me: I'm pretty sure it is Tuesday today sir.
Him: No, no, no, wednesday. let me check. had a paper, let me check,
today is wednesday, can't afford a ticket. want to see David and Lisa
Me: Okay sir, well, as I said I have to check with the production
manager and director
Him: When you figure out it is Wednesday I will call.
Me: Okay sir.
Him: Today is wednesday. just saw the paper. (shouts to others) what
day is it?
(inaudible)
Him: Tuesday. Tuesday. I'll call you tomorrow. Don't know why I thought
it was wednesday. Wednesday. don't ask why I had a 3 day weekend
Me: Okay sir, call me back tomorrow and I'll let you know
Him: Tuesday, wednesday, tuesday. Thank you
It takes all kinds, as they say.
I would note that tickets cost $5. So if you graduated from the University 30 years ago, not being able to afford a $5 ticket has some specific social implications. Add to that not having a phone or email, and calling from an on campus phone number, and the logical extension is that he called from the hospital.
It's actually, in addition to being a slightly amusing anecdote, a slightly difficult decision. We won't suffer from comping one more person. We probably won't sell out Thursday night. Who am I to say that you can't come see the show? I will tell him when he calls back that there is, unfortunately, nothing I can do (the director was not wiling to have an open rehearsal, or at least not an open rehearsal consisting of the production staff and this random alum). But what if seeing this play (which is, I might add, about residents of a school for mentally distrubed children) would be good for this person? What if he isn't insane but was just having a bad day? He certainly didn't sound dangerous or disruptive, just confused and didactic.
Furthermore, it made me see my future (or at least one version of it). It isn't that much of a stretch for me to see myself 30 years from now, slightly off my rocker and confused about the day, calling to try to talk my way into a show for free.
On another note, my professor was out again this week. The substitute is clearly a good teacher in his own right, but not a Nobel-prize winner. Nor does he know what we did/did not cover in the 3 weeks with the regular professor. I'm a little worried about next week's midterm, though presumably the TA (who sits in the back of the class doing reading for something else) will know what we've covered.
My mother called to ask if she could drop in for a surprise visit this weekend. Very sweet, but I have my show and a three day meeting in addition to a wedding on Thursday and midterms next week. Don't think that'll make for much mother-daughter time.
The three day meeting is a little ridiculous. Usually we have one very long meeting to schedule the shows for next season. In 6 years of attending these meetings, they've lasted anywhere from 3 to 11 hours, but always in one sitting. This quarter we have some scheduling conflicts. So we'll hear presentations for about 2 hours on Friday. Then we'll meet Saturday at 1:30. We have to break at 6pm--if we're done, great, if we aren't, we reconvene Sunday at 10. There are 15 proposals to discuss. Even assuming we talk about each one for only 20 minutes, that's 5 hours--i.e. 30 minutes more than we have Saturday. And we won't talk about each of them for only 20 minutes, though one or two may take less time then that. Plus after we talk about them we have to schedule them and give them stipulations.
It's a good process, it just takes a long time. We kept trying to figure out ways to not have it stretch over 3 days, but every time we stuck to one time we ran into conflicts that made us lose quorum.
The summer show proposal meeting last Friday went pretty well, and only lasted 2 hours. But 1/3 the number of proposals and 1/3 the number of people in the room.
Here's to sanity.
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