What Happens Backstage

*For the sake of entertainment and privacy, all the names mentioned in this post are fake*

 If you've ever been in theater, you know there's always some drama going on. Wether you're involved in it, a witness, a messenger, or just hearing about it. I am currently in a production at a community theatre owned by one of my friends and tonight is opening night. I'm currently writing this before call time. So the director and owner of this theatre company, Jasmine, is a friend of mine. I've performed with him in two shows, he's seen me perform in a few productions, and I was in every show he's directed so far. Everyone in this show is a friend of Jasmine. This past Sunday, we had our first tech rehearsal which was 8 hours long. Everyone was a little on edge that day considering we came in at 2pm and rehearsed until 7pm for a lunch break. During the lunch break, my cast mate, Peppermint, told me they texted me. I checked the text and it was Peppermint being pissed at Jasmine for saying we weren't good and he needed to cut us some slack. The thing is he was right. It wasn't good, but he would make us run the number again and then would tell us we were good. It wasn't bad criticism, it was to get us to do better and we did! 

After the rehearsal ended, I stayed back a bit to clean up some of the mess backstage. I ran into my friends, Hibiscus and Chamomile. We started chatting a little bit and Hibiscus made a reference to being mad at someone in the cast. I asked him who it was and he asked me if I was an opp. I said I won't say anything (until now). Him and Chamomile pulled me aside and told me Peppermint was talking shit about Jasmine. Peppermint had went up to Hibiscus and Chamomile and told them that Jasmine needs to cut them some slack and other shit about how they don't care what our director had to say. Remember, the entire cast is friends with Jasmine. Chamomile then told me that Peppermint had also mistreated another girl in the cast. This girl asked the director a question and Peppermint turned to her and said "Maybe if you were fucking listening, you wouldn't have to ask." I always take word of mouth with a grain of salt because of many factors including false memory, but I was and wasn't surprised at the same time. Peppermint has talked shit about a few people in the cast, Hibiscus being one of them. They also have showed a few signs of being jealous of others including me. They told people they were upset they didn't get a named role, they told me that I do too much in the show and they should do more (sorry the director trust me enough to do a lot in the show), and they've told me that some people weren't good enough for the role they got. Unfortunately, it doesn't end there. Yesterday, Hibiscus came up to me and told me he was pissed at Peppermint. He went to go put a large prop back in the prop room and Peppermint was just standing there in the doorway and wasn't moving. When Hibiscus went through, Peppermint backed up and said "What the fuck is your problem?!" 

I understand that theatre and performing in general is very stressful. However, that is not an excuse to be rude to your cast and director. I don't know what to do, I've been friends with Peppermint for a year and now I feel like everything's adding up. I see them in a different light. I'm not trying to get involved in any drama. I fear that people are gonna say something to Jasmine and he's gonna cut Peppermint from performing in any future productions (which he's done before to rude cast members).  If you read this entire post, thank you for listening. Love you lots!

- Cherry 💋