Write It Down or It's Not Plain!

I hope you never do this. Let me know if you can relate...

I was thinking today of myself as a young artist who was looking for gigs.

Some friends of a friend heard that I might be available to direct their production and they called me. I was so excited! If this worked out, this would be my first full show since college!

They came from a small town/ farm country like I did and so when we met, I felt at home with them. They were cool and seemed like they wanted a quality show like I did.

They mentioned to me what they expected and what the budget and pay would be. I shared what I was hoping for and they seemed to be good with it all. We even set dates for auditions and began to prep for the show. It was all good.

It wasn't until we were in the process of rehearsing that things began to break apart. You see, the producers nor I had anything written down. Just some scratched notes on pieces of paper.

Sure, I knew better. I had learned all about writing it down and creating clear expectations in college. But I had also come from a background where the strength of a "gentleman's handshake" was sufficient and you trusted everyone. Why write it down?

I found out why pretty fast. In the process of rehearsing the show, when I required help or was inquiring about something for design, there was many times when there was surprise and hesitancy about providing it. Sometimes, what was done was not what I asked for. It slowed the down the process because we needed to repeat conversations and redo. Ug!

We got through the production ok and it turned out to be a good show. The team and I were tired and in some ways stressed but grateful and excited for the result. We even got some really good press coverage. So that was wonderful!

Unfortunately, the financial payment for the work I did never happened. And this was all because we did not write anything down. It was their word against mine. It sucked but it was true.

I will never forget this. Now, I always write it down and ask whoever I am working with to do the same. It becomes a contract between us.

If you want to know more about how I do this, please email me at wanda@kaizenworks.org


Wanda

Kaizen means "continually growing" in Japanese.
http://www.kaizenworks.org