Saturday 20 June

Apparently under the description of Paints/Props Intern there is apparently 'cleaning crew' under there somehow. We got an e-mail saying how we had to report to work an hour earlier today because we were assigned certain locations in the theatre that we needed to clean up and re-organize. I got the props shop, pretty convenient I thought. There wasn't much to clean up, so I just sat there for most of this hour I was given and explored the props shop trying to figure out what I was going to do for however long I was left here. Shortly after that, the designer comes down to the props shop and asks if he can talk with me.

He told me that the production manager went up to him and told him that I was leaving and he wanted to come and talk to me about everything and see what was going on. I told him the short version of the story and that I was just exhausted and needed a break from everything and that I was stressed out and thought that this place had given me way too many responsibilites as just an Intern and I just couldn't do it. He agreed with me and said that he told the production manager that this place had huge balls for giving me these two huge responsibilities and agreed that it wasn't fair and that he felt there should be one person here doing props full time. Not the answer I expected, but still it was nice to hear someone agree with me. I told him that I just didn't know what to do and he asked me that if he went to the production manger and talked to him about changing my contract if I would stay. I said that I wasn't sure and he basically then told me that if I left the possibility of finding another person with the skillsets that I have would be next to impossible and that they would have to re-design all the shows from here on out because he wouldn't be able to do it on his own.

They need me here...I was needed. It's a weird feeling to have a theatre company basically tell you this.

The designer went up and talked to the Production Manager and after a while they both came up and pulled me to the side and explained the negotiation. The production manager told me that I would be virtually lifted of my props duties and would only help when I had nothing to do and that I would strictly stay with paints for the summer when there was painting that needed to be done and that the props would be a company thing that everyone would have to chip in and help doing. They would do this if I agreed to stay.

I agreed.

So I'm here for the rest of the summer. I'm not sure how I fell about it yet, but I'm staying.