When the shoe (or the role) doesn't fit...

Hello! I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I certainly did my best to spend as much time outdoors as humanly possible tackling gardening projects galore.

But in between all the sunshine and gardening projects, I had a not-so-fun email to write.

A couple days after one of my recent auditions, I got an email from the company offering me a role in one of their productions. The initial email stated the role they were offering, and said there was an available stipend, but no details on what that stipend would BE, whether housing would be provided, or really, any other details I would need to make an informed decision.

The offered role is one that is outside of my Fach, but one that wouldn’t have done any damage, and that I thought would present some fun acting possibilities, so I wrote back and asked for details on pay, housing, rehearsal dates, etc.

….And then, I waited.

Three or four days later, I got a response with details that sounded mostly pretty good. Yes, housing would be provided. Rehearsal dates were workable.

The stipend though? It didn’t come close to covering the income I would have had to give up during the three weeks I would have had to be in their city.

So I wrote back, explained the situation, and asked for more money. I took into account the fact that this is a newer, smaller company that likely didn’t have a ton of resources. What I asked for covered lost teaching income and nothing else.

…And then, I waited again. I figured that maybe they went and talked to a donor or two to ask if someone could potentially cover the difference (at least, that’s what I would have done).

When I finally heard back nearly a week later, the response was not the one that I hoped for. They couldn’t raise the pay for me.

This was a bummer, for sure. After roughly a year and a half of very little singing, I would have loved to accept this contract. However the calculus didn’t work.

At this point in my career, I don’t feel the need to take work just “for the experience” anymore. My resume has enough activity on it that I don’t need to list work just to list it, and I DEFINITELY don’t need to list roles outside of my Fach to cause confusion. That means that if I’m going to sing a role outside of my Fach that I would never have the opportunity to sing again, I DEFINITELY need to get paid.

Thinking it through, it struck me that three or four years ago, I would have accepted the contract and danced a jig. Honestly, for a singer with less experience, this wouldn’t have been a terrible offer. Also, if this had been a role I was looking to sing - that I could try out in a lower stakes environment before taking it to a bigger house - I might still have accepted it. It just wasn’t the right offer for me, right now.

So between gardening projects, I sat down and did something I’d never done before. I wrote an email turning down a contract.

Some people will likely tell me I’m crazy. After all, the pandemic has had everything shut down for over a year. I was offered a contract almost as soon as things started opening back up and I turned it down.

But the way I figure, saying no to the opportunity that doesn’t fit is saying a preemptive “yes” the the one that does.

Also, #myvoiceismybusiness, and taking a contract that is off-brand AND doesn’t pay well is just not a good way to run a business.

So there you have it. Here’s my to-do list for this week:

• Continue working through The Artist’s Way. I’m on the week that requires reading deprivation. Anyone who knows me will understand that this is going to be VERY hard for me.

• I’ve started learning the piece for the memorial service in a couple of weeks. I’m also working on the arias from Bach’s b minor Mass. They’re really hard! I also need to know them.

• I’m going to actually do my bookkeeping this week. Yes, I procrastinated hard on that one…

What’s on your list this week?