Temps Preview 1992 March 4

Crane has a way with people. It's not a good way. It's a way which few people I've ever met exhibit. He's a maniac, a tyrant; he's the devil incarnate. It's an awful way, but it's his way, and consequently he drives people away from him as regularly as the tides. It's a shame, because it seems Theatre Rapport, at one time, was a thriving, well-respected theater program. The reviews on the wall and the pictures of past shows suggest a highly polished professional company. I also found out that they used to have a postage permit, allowing them to mail all they wanted to for a set fee, a fee which would necessitate about 1000 postcards every so often to make it worth it. "That was back when we had a mailing list," he told me tonight. "But that list wouldn't be any good these days." How many days must have passed since those days to make a mailing list no good? People don't move that often. (Real people, anyway. I'm still homeless, of course.) But, it seems, since those days, Crane has succeeded in single-handedly destroying his own company.

Now, maybe I'm giving Crane too much credit for the damage done ages ago, but he really does attack people as if they're nothing. He has no respect for other people's opinions and efforts and never fails to say just the wrong thing. Could he have always been like this? There are times when he jokes around and he seems like he belongs on a barstool after a weekend softball game. I can picture him on his successful team, just a bunch of friends who wanted to play some games and so they put together a squad. They had a lot of success and a lot of fun and created an honest-to-goodness championship season or two that received well-deserved respect from the critics and crowds. But then what? The pitcher moved away. Little Eddie replaced Tank behind the plate, and Hardheaded Harris became the moral leader of the bunch. And they started losing games, and interest, and all the younger, more enthusiastic teams absorbed not only the fans, but also the drive and the spirit that had forged the group and given it its strength. That left Slow Bob Sr. on the mound and gave the 11-run rule a weekly workout. And now it's all over except for the crying.

The problem is that Crane doesn't let the actors' desire propel the group. His constant demoralizing and power-tripping overrides any natural momentum that might have formed from within. Even a thrown-together team would still have a shot at the title as long as the 8th Street Titans didn't decide to bunt on Slow Bob Sr., because the spirit of a winner can be spontaneously generated if the desire is there. But this thrown-together theater group will never make it back to what it was. The powerful, debilitating hand of Crane Jackson, whether scolding actors or kicking out company members, will always win out and squelch any forming excitement. The end result is show after show that is two notches below what it could be. Bad sound. A thrown-together set. Lame props. Inadequate direction. No publicity. Small audiences. Bad reviews. Disappointing shows. The list goes on.

A side effect of Crane's overriding power trip is the company's lack of knowledge of what's happening with its money. Checks are written to Crane for dues and for shows, but the use of those funds is never made evident. A breakdown of the finances would ease the agony of writing yet another check that seems to disappear into the fiscal void. It's just another demoralizing aspect of Theatre Rapport.

And, that said, Act II of Temps. We were just about as ready as we were for Act I, and it went off as smoothly technically, but, of course, it wasn't received quite as warmly. There are less jokes, and so, there were less laughs. And Jonathan has to do even harder acting, and so that was even more painful. But, all said, it was a success, and proved us worthy of a March 8th opening. So, we're opening April 5th.

One word can explain that: Crane. He did no publicity, no press releases, no nothing. We didn't even have the rights in writing. So he declared our first three weekends "previews", and pushed the run of the show into May, thus requiring that we replace Jonathan halfway through the run. Ah, Crane.

He also refused our request for opening weekend comps so we could fill the house. He'd rather fill the house with random people than with our friends. That was another shitty Crane Jackson special touch. We just need to rise above the muck, and hopefully the show will make it off the ground.