May 2001 – Page 6 – Priscilla Spencer

I know that I promised a day of silence, but I just have to vent. I absolutely cannot believe what a jerk Mr. Blaydes can be. He’s the director for the Hockaday drama department. I went to see “You Can’t Take it With You”, which wasn’t spectacular. It had its cute moments, but the script was lacking and many of the actors didn’t look like they were putting as much energy into the show. Anyway, at Intermission, we went outside to talk with Mr. Blaydes, so that he could see me there so that his opinion of me would improve. I’ve tried out for three of his shows, and I haven’t made one of them. All is happy and nifty at first. I talk about how I loved one of the actors, Olivia Jennings, in her role. She was really cute and energetic. I enforce the positive aspects of the show.

After a minute, the conversation shifts to “How to Succeed”, and I’m really excited because I know he would probably take my performance in “How to Succeed” into account when casting next years’ plays and musical. However, instead of mentioning the good aspects of the story, he says in no uncertain words that he hates the show. He insults the music right off the bat. He complained that there were no really big songs until the very end of Act II (he was referring to “Brotherhood of Man”. I wonder what he thought of “Coffee Break”, in that case). Then he gripes about how it has no transition between scenes and it jumps everywhere. He says it lacks fluidity. Excuse me, but every show jumps from scene to scene like that. Then he complains about the length. I’m sorry, but we already had to cut the show down a LOT. We cut the Pirate Dance number before the TV show and we stripped “A Secretary is Not a Toy” down to the bare bones of the song. He just couldn’t stop complaining. It’s a testament to my acting ability that I didn’t drop my rather forced smile and deck him upside the head.

Excuse me, Mr. Blaydes, but there’s a thing called “tact”. As we learned from Thumper, the rabbit from Bambi, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Don’t lie, but don’t tell the whole truth, either. I don’t care if he didn’t like the show. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. But they shouldn’t share it if it would hurt the other person’s feelings. This was the first time I’d heard anyone dissing “How to Succeed”, and it came as a real shock. Because Mr. Blaydes had the nerve to insult the music and the script, the two aspects of the show we had no control over, it really made me want to reconsider trying out for his production next fall. His only non-negative comment was “It took me a while to realize it was you”. In my mind, Mr. Blaydes shrunk to only two inches tall. I used to have a high opinion about him, but that is a thing of the past. ::snarls:: My mom witnessed the whole thing, and she thinks he’s jealous of Mrs. Felice, the director for Jesuit. Mrs. Felice is the most fabulous director in the history of the universe, and frankly I don’t want to try out for any more Hockaday productions if I have the option of working with Mrs. Felice instead.

So that’s my story.