The purpose of this, and other articles I write for this column is to help people embrace and get the most out of the aspects of acting itself, and in many ways acting is acting. But because I write from the perspective of non-profit or community players I must sometimes take into consideration the intrinsic differences between the mechanics of voluntary community theatre, and professional, paying productions. (Professional meaning money, not necessarily of better quality.)

I think you can agree that even when a contract is broken, that there is a lot more to it professionally than there would be in the voluntary theatre world. Of course a person CAN break a professional contract, but as you said, they would probably have to take a lot into consideration before doing so. But at the community level it is very easy to do. You jut say, “goodbye” and don’t show up again. It is that ease of being able to leave a community show that people need to take into consideration sometimes. I advocate an actor not doing so in a flippant manner, because of how easy it is.

Sometimes in community theatre a reputation is damaged by it. Sometimes it is not. But professional or amateur has little in my mind to do with the reputation situation. It is a personal perception thing. I myself would like down upon anybody who left a show in the lurch, whether professional or amateur. But not everybody would feel that way.

As far as venues, I was thinking more along the lines of Equity and that sort of thing. I realize I did not point to unionized professionals specifically in the piece, and perhaps I should have, seeing as how one can be professional without being union. But since the column wasn’t intended to go into such details, I didn’t think to offer the distinction in this particular context. But the fact is if you are in the union, there are venues and companies for which you would be prevented from performing without special exemption. Which means if appropriate union sanctioned venues in a given area are only served by specific directors, a unionized actor would, in a sense, be limited to the specific director with which they could work on stage. They couldn’t follow just any director friend of theirs to any theatre they chose. That was more of the point I was trying to make.

As for the final point, about directors giving line readings; I cannot agree that the only way around this problem is to become a professional actor. There are plenty of community players and companies that behave in a “professional” manner, without being paid professionals. I advise amateurs to seek out such directors in their area. One such “professional” type of director is one who does not as you say, “micro-manage” and give line readings. But it happens all the time in community theatre. But there are also plenty of community theatre directors who understand how uncouth such a practice is. It is those directors that I encourage community players to seek out. They are in fact out there.

Professional actors, for the most part, are basically independent contractors. I don’t see any less freedom to be selective about the work you do, where you seek to do it, and with whom for professional actors than for amateurs. I don’t know what contractual obligations could force an actor to perform in a venue unknown to him or her at the time they auditioned. And professional actors have rights to break their contracts (though doing so may tarnish a reputation and make directors and companies leery of casting the actor again, but I don’t see how quitting a show would have any less detrimental impact on the reputation of an amateur). It’s bad form, indeed, but it happens all the time that an actor who has been cast in a show for months will drop out to take a better role, work at a company or with a director more advantageous to their career, or so that their husband can go on a dream vacation (a reason recently given to me by an actress dropping out of a show). Sometimes dropping a show burns a bridge forever, other times (as with the actress I just mentioned) the director understands and moves on.

To one other point the author makes, if you don’t like directors giving you specific line readings try working more professionally. At the professional level, it’s kind of unheard of that a director would be that micro-managing as to give a direct line reading. They might have a very specific idea as to the intention behind a line but to tell an actor how to say a line is just not done.