The Unnecessarily Catalogued Fulltext Open Access Diary of an (Acting) Librarian Chapter 17

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Dances with Cows

Date: A Day of My Life

Weather: Stuffy and stuffing

The New Year has been pretty slow in terms of acting work. I haven’t been back to the drama school lately as more and more teaching staff had joined the exodus from Succubus, tyranny, so there is no point going back. The latest victim of Succubus’ crazy regime was the library, which is now dissected into smaller sections to make way for her Board meeting room because “the library has the best view in the building”. Also the Australian play collection was further reduced with duplicate copies of unpublished plays being chucked out completely so that they can reduce the size of the compactus for more study rooms that are hardly used. The scenario is so depressing and even Angela is now seriously considering quitting too. She helped the drama school established the best library specialising in dramatic art in Australia, but now that is slowly slipping away as teaching resources seemed to be no longer a priority for Succubus. The drama school has just become one of the playthings she tatters with and leaves her mark to show people she was once there. As for all the teaching staff that left, she is more than happy to see them go. Now all she needs to do is to find a way to kick all the Board members that she hates out then her dictatorship will be completed. Honestly, the drama school has become such a depressing place that some stuff couldn’t even be bothered to go back and pack. Of course, as “accommodating” as Succubus is, she immediately employs people to pack the offices for them and send all the boxes to their homes as a grand gesture of “courtesy”.

Back to the library. Eva still hasn’t got over the fact that Claire and I are going to the conference at Darling Harbour. As for Claire us, we really couldn’t figure out what the big fuss is about. After all we are just going to Darling Harbour. However, as her scale of bitching expands further, we came to know that she and some other staff members see this as an index of how important they are in the organisation. I know, this sounds stupid eh? But then what we are talking about is a bunch of people who stayed in the same job forever without the willingness to really learn new skills but want to get a pay rise every year. Putting that factor into the picture, it immediately made sense to us. Originally Claire and I wanted to smooth things out a bit with Eva. At the end of the day, although she had been marginalised quite a bit in the project by the management, we still need to work with her from time to time. However, when we found out all the labels she gave us in front of the gang, we just thought “Up Yours!” We don’t really see eye to eye anymore and it really didn’t bother us. In fact it bothered Eva a lot more for she thought that we would make peace with her after she created such an “adverse environment” for us but that didn’t happen. Some people who couldn’t stand her told us that we can go to the management and complain about her bullying behaviour but then we sort of found it funny to watch a lady of her age acting like a kindergarten kid.

The fact that the library job is just for cash in pocket is good for me I reckon. At least I don’t really need to pay attention to some of those aliens who reside in this space ship. Sometimes I do wonder how a respectable profession like this could attract so many “idiosyncratic” personalities into one space. Anyway I am more concerned about my acting career. Apart from a few odd ads here and there, there hasn’t been a lot of work around for me. Hugo is working his ass off to fight of the effects of GFC on his agency so I have been networking like no tomorrow every weekend. Sometimes I felt like I’m prostituting myself for my art but then even Julia Roberts managed to score something big in “Pretty Woman”, so why not? In fact I do enjoy going to these events and functions. At least you are with a bunch of people who share the same passion and we can drink, joke and swear like no tomorrow. Something I definitely can’t do at the library or even at home...at least not in front of mum because it is “wulgar” and “not nice”.

Oh nearly forgot, my annoying sister told mum the other day that she wants to go audition for “Australian Idol”. Mum nearly threw her out of the window. Words were exchanged as I quietly finished all my sister’s favourite dishes on the table – just to piss her off more. Seriously she can’t sing at all and every time “Singstar” is on, I had to find an excuse to leave the house. The good thing about mum is she sees the flaws in her children and won’t hold back to tell them. When my sister was crushed by mum’s honest opinion about her singing, she just couldn’t take it. I personally don’t mind her going cos I think it’s about time for her to know that she is not artistically talented in any sense. Maybe she should still go and make a joke out of herself in front of the judges. I think it should be fun to watch. Sis is now trying to solicit dad’s support. See how well that will go down.

The Unnecessarily Catalogued Fulltext Open Access Diary of an (Acting) Librarian Chapter 16

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For Better or the Worse

Day: In the Light of Day
Weather: Four seasons in one day

The new academic year didn’t really fare well for the academics. Shortly a month into the new semester, two prominent teachers at the drama school decided to quit. Danielle Lazarus, one of the voice teachers responsible for first year voice training decided that she had enough of the craziness from Succubus and submitted her high profile resignation – through a mass email. Succubus, well known for having no appreciation for voice work and reckons if audience can’t hear the actors on stage, she can simply mic them, gladly accepted her resignation. She then sent another mass email to all staff saying that Danielle has accepted an invitation to her farewell party to be announced at a later date for her contribution to the drama school in the last 15 years. Her high profile move was then backfired when Danielle, to Succubus’ surprise, replied with another mass email to all staff saying that she had never accepted the invitation and was amused that someone couldn’t understand the simple English word “No”. Publicly humiliated, Succubus sent another email to all saying that from now on anyone who wants to send all staff email has to get her prior approval or otherwise risk disciplining actions from her. On Danielle’s last day, Succubus sent a bunch of flowers to Danielle to show there were no ill feelings between them. However, later during the day, Danielle noticed that the vase holding the flowers was actually defective and water was leaking all over her stuff. In response to Succubus’ friendly move, Danielle sent one last all staff email thanking Succubus for the flowers and hoped that the leaking vase wouldn’t cost the drama school too much to replace the carpet in her office. Caught out again publicly, Succubus asked the IT guy to take the all staff distribution list offline completely. Danielle was snapped up by the second biggest theatre company in the city as their in house voice coach immediately after.

Shortly after Danielle’s resignation, Luke McPherson, one of acting teachers there, decided to go too. He was sick of the change of curriculum from actual production experience into street theatres that jeopardise students’ learning from actual work. Under Succubus new curriculum direction, students will not be involved in any real productions until the second half of the second semester in their second year. Luke, who was passionate about students learning on the job to identify their shortcoming, was vigorously against this change. As a result, Succubus took him offline from the curriculum board and just assigned regular teaching duties with minimum hours with students – to avoid a bad influence on students’ mentality. When some third year students knew that, they called for a student council meeting to support Luke. Succubus, as iron-fist as she was, sent a mass email to all saying that if any student was found to organising activities without her approval, they risked expulsion even if they were in their third year – something the drama school will never do. Angry by her move, Luke file a grievance report to the board and to the Employment Ombudsman citing unfair and groundless bullying activities at the drama school. His filing caught the attention of the media and with the Board questioning Succubus on the bad publicity and her recent splash of cash for her own use, Succubus backed down to seek a settlement. Finally Succubus was made to send an apology to all staff and students over the misjudgement she made and apologised to Luke. Although Luke had scored a victory on this matter, he decided to go after the city biggest Theatre Company noticed the saga and offered him a job as the acting coach for their resident company actors. When I ran into Rena, another voice teacher there the other day, she said there the drama school’s standard is on the blink of collapsing. Probably Succubus will seek to get rid of all voice teachers there in the next year or so.

Back to the Library front, things were quiet for quite a while until one day my boss told Claire and I that we are going to a local conference at the end of next month. The conference is about application of modern technology in information services. Claire and I were fairly surprised by the notification but we gladly accepted the offer. Eva, however, was not that happy. She immediately started a personal campaign hoping to undermine Sonia’s decision by going around telling people about favouritism in the organisation. She even went to the HR manager to whinge about it. Basically she was complaining about that it is not fair full time ongoing staff like her were not chosen for the conference but part-timers and contract staff like Claire and I were chosen instead. At first people were trying to be nice to her and empathised her but then after two weeks of a campaign with a size bigger than the Academy Awards rallying, people started to get sick of her. Finally today at the tearoom, when she was saying out loudly “I don’t know why people like him, who isn’t even committed to the profession, should be given that chance.” Another manager overheard her statement, went over to her and said, “Just ask yourself, when did you last finish a project without screwing up? That’s why”.

Eva was shocked by that manager’s public comment. She immediately sculled (and choked on) her tea and left the room.

However, the damaged was done. Some of the staff members who have lower IQ bought Eva’s view and she had now successfully recruited a group of minions. Claire and I knew that the year ahead would not be easy with Eva.