The Most Hateful Adventure of All

I had PLANNED to write an uplifting happy seasonal entry about Christmas and shopping and hanging lights.

However, all of those things had to be put on hold because of a "holiday related incident" at STC.

Avery Brooks: titular star of Tamburlaine, known for Deep Space Nine, is the sufferer of said incident. I say that because he IS, in all fairness, the one physically injured. We, the Box Office, are the mental and spiritual victims.

The story you heard: A vague sidebar in the Post calling his accident "holiday related." The real story: [removed by sound advice of peers.] The outcome is that the aging Mr. Brooks is laid up and about 5,000 angry subscribers on his (absent) conscience.

This is what I come into on Saturday morning: a list of 600 people to call about THAT NIGHT. We are not allowed to say anything to any of the patrons regarding the real story. All we can say is that he is injured and cannot perform.

Now wait a hot second CSmith, I hear you saying, surely a theatre as well-off as STC would have not one, but TWO understudies for a lead role! SURELY! But. But, my friends, BUT the original understudy recently fled town for a Family Emergency. The second understudy (who also understudied the other male roles) had had almost NO rehearsal and was NOT AT ALL prepared to go on Saturday night.

But it continues! Tamburlaine has been cancelled through the 27th, and we are waiting for the final decision on whether or not to cancel the rest of the run. So we've been calling about 500 people per day (after emailing them) WHILE taking calls for other people who have already been informed of their cancellation and helping them WHILE they decided a new $10 offer for Edward was necessary in this time of crisis so we have in inpouring of orders for that WHILE we are understaffed since everyone's left already for Christmas.

In conclusion: I'm am stuck with very un-Christmassy thoughts right now.