Re: Pet peeve
Sticking with my pattern of doing this in threes...I hate it when directors decide they MUST do a show exactly like how it was done on Broadway. Especially when they're directing for a theatre company that's trying to save itself from economic oblivion. "Yeah, I know they say they need that in the script...but can you find some way to NOT need it without compromising the whole story?" It's even better when the producers inform me, AFTER I've said yes to designing the show, that my budget is pretty much all spent just getting the props for one scene (they're used through the whole show, yes, but all but three of them turn up in the opening scene...and they're not 'do the show without it' kinds of things...they HAVE to be there...) Was told my props budget is $500...the rental for the guns (the show is Sondheim's 'Assassins', so you've got to have several VERY specific guns) would be more than that, if I got blank-firing versions of everything. I've talked the director out of that much, but I'm still not certain just how much it will end up being, yet, because I can't get a solid answer on whether or not I need two weapons offered for the rental package but not really mentioned in the script (one is mentioned, but we only see it in passing).
I shoulda known this would happen. I've done scenic art for these guys before, and it's always a communications nightmare, trying to get information from the set designer so I know what I'm painting. At least they seem to be consistent...getting the same treatment as a props designer...I'm foreseeing a lot of really busy periods in my future, when (if) they call to ask me to do it again...