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Once in a while, there is a life changing show that is put on by a local theatre.

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Sometimes, that show isn't put on for the right reasons.

I recently completed a full production of Fun Home, a musical discussing the intense relationship between an openly lesbian daughter and her closeted homosexual father. I remember when I was first asked to do this show months ago, I hadn't even heard of it. As soon as I was asked to do the show, I started listening to the album and my entire perspective of this show had changed. This was no longer just about me making music to make someone’s night better when they go to see a show, but to tell an important story of an underrepresented community and the struggles so many of us go through on a regular basis.

A few notes about the research I did as the percussionist of this show:

1) I had to build a set of instruments specific to this show that in my opinion held great importance to the integrity of this show.

2) I looked at this history of the story and deeper meanings behind why some of the music was written the way it was.

3) I painstakingly went through the score to find each texture and its relationship to the story to make sure I could properly do my job to its highest quality.

I would like to point out, this is what I did simply as the PERCUSSIONIST to this show. Not a music director, not an actor, nothing more. This was simply so I felt that I was doing the show justice and what would be appropriate for such an important piece of art to be brought to life to its full potential.

From the start of working on this show, I was informed of a very small budget on the end of the theatre company producing it. This was expressed to me through the music director in the fact that we had reduced a 4-piece orchestra to a 2-piece orchestra, just the MD and myself. This already showed me personally that the theatre was putting it on for the wrong reasons. Before the first rehearsal, I was told they had no microphones or audio equipment for doing sound for a live band. I then was informed by the sound operator that they had minimal knowledge on how to set up or configure sound from the start of a show and was more experienced in just the operation of the sound itself. They then tried to get me through my own company to volunteer numerous amounts of equipment at no cost until I told them that it wasn't for free. This drastically reduced the amount of work they were willing to put in and the amount they needed to a very small number of items.

To save some time, I will be skipping a large number of miscellaneous issues and get to this last weekend of the production.

We knew going into this weekend that one of our leads' partners had tested positive for COVID and that there was a decent chance that this lead's actress would as well. When news broke the morning after our Thursday night performance that this had been the case, I had assumed that would be the end of the show. It had offhandedly been mentioned to me the night before that they wanted to fill the roll with a straight cis woman and I had just laughed it off and assumed that was never going to happen. This is the role of a lesbian as the lead character in a story about how queerness had impacted the lives of so many people. Shortly after it was announced that this said lead had Covid, I was shocked to hear that they wanted to replace this role with the cis straight woman.

This had to be a joke, right? The theatre company isn't that blind to the issue to actually make this happen, right? I was wrong. I immediately called the two people that were in charge of this decision and expressed the outright anger I had that they were even considering this as an option. They didn't seem care. Lots of words clearly there as a "we're sorry you feel that way" sort of response with clearly no hope to actually discuss this and do the right thing. So, I gave up and talked to some other members of the production.

I asked them how ridiculous they thought this was too, but they hadn't even been told that there was a member of the cast with Covid, let alone that there were plans to be a sub. For many, they learned of the cast illness through me. This astounded me.

Not only had a theatre company not seen the issue in casting a cis straight woman for a queer role in an entirely queer based play, but they had also put the lives of cast members and their family at risk by not addressing them telling them there was a sickness in the cast as soon as they had heard. It was almost 3 hours after I had learned that this cast member had contracted Covid that there was an email sent out to the cast (never including me by the way, I only heard through the MD on Facebook messenger and never actually through any official correspondence from the theatre company.)

Shortly after, many cast members expressed to me their shared anger with this decision to move on with the show and have a straight cis woman fill the role. It was expressed to me through MULTIPLE cast members that they had personally reached out to these same people I had and made their issues with the subject clear. Yet after all of this in addition to multiple conversations with the directors haphazardly sprinkled throughout the day, I was eventually told that it would be decided at the call time of the actors after a short meeting, which was at 6:00 for a 7:30 show. I had to teach 30 minutes away and my call time wasn't until 7pm, so I assumed I would hear something either before I left or on my way to the show beforehand. Since I hadn't heard anything from the cast or crew, at 6:30 I disappointedly packed up and left to the theatre seething and saddened by what I presumed the decision was. I arrived surprised to walk up and see crew and cast outside of the theatre hanging about. I was told they were on a break before they made a decision. This was 7pm mind you, for a show that was scheduled to start in 30 minutes. I was dumbfounded. The carelessness of the staff to sit there and let patrons waste money attempting to get to the theatre just to be turned down at the door. Regardless, I went in and there was an almost solemn silence in the room. Shortly after, they announced it would be a blind vote among the cast, not mentioning me. Insulted that I was simply an afterthought yet again, I walk on stage with the cast. It was a blind, silent voteto decide were we or were we not doing the show that night. I obviously vote no, and still don't know how many on that stage voted, but it was deemed "ok there will be no show, multiple people voted no." In oblivious astonishment, one of the two staff members I had mentioned before exclaimed it was because they thought were not trusting the show could be subbed by this cis straight woman, not because of her identity but because of her lack of vocal skills. The utter lack of understanding of the whole situation showed itself right there in that one moment, and I had to hold in a boiling rage.

But I just walked off stage, gathered my things, hugged my friend and music director, and said my goodbyes. It was then that I realized they didn’t want to do this for the "good of the story" and to tell an important narrative, but because they knew it would sell and that by us not wanting to do the right thing, they were losing money.

There is much more I could get into about how these staff members had threatened to cut our pay because of this situation (which is illegal and outside of their own contract), about how they need to hire people that know what they’re doing from the start and not to have someone come patch up issues down the line because the company didn’t want to pay a fair wage. There are many stories of disrespect from the staff when it comes to their treatment of personal equipment of musicians, lack of research into solving problems, and much more. However, I will let others speak out on their own experiences working this this company.

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Sometimes, you have to realize art is never easy when done right.

Grant Bramham, September 24, 2022