Virgo 8° (August 30)

 

So I don’t have to much participate today which is great because I’m frankly in capable of it. The reality of what I’m dealing with is hitting me hard now and so I will take my leave and S. will go and gather croissants and spend the morning at the hotel. I will stroll around outside for a bit and come back and try to make something out of my own morning, to no avail. I mean there are the artifical elements. But mainly I must think about drafting a letter. I will do so on Sunday I think. In the meantime it wouldn’t be right to print it here in any case. I will begin writing my show then too. I have a lot to do on that so I actually better get cracking. First though I will get all my festival passes requested. I will also put in all the tech info. I will sort out some of the issues with the ferries. And I will get all the bikes and all the Sparklers and all the tickets reset. I will also sign off on photo for my show and now I have to write a blurb.

Faced with a late-breaking cancellation by a scheduled artist, and already single-handedly juggling every other aspect of producing a performance festival, impresario Quinn Coxhas only a few days to write his first ever solo play, learn some simple songs he can block out on the piano, and hope some overall themes and dramatic arcs will emerge in the process. Part panic attack, part trooperism, part self-flagellation, and part transcendence of artistic delusion, Cox deconstructs the undertaking of making a one-man show, without the luxury of reflection, second guessing or a single a moment to lose. Buoyed only by a bottle of organic red wine, he must lay bare his thoughts, feelings, talents, and all other expressions of imperfection in upholding the traditional notion that the show must go on. After which time, there may be no going back. With special guest Stella Starsky(American Baroness).

This will happen later but here it is in redacted form:
Select members of our Advisory Board pow-wowed last evening for several hours on the complete situation at hand and on the email [redacted] sent yesterday.

It was consensus, “[redacted]needs to understand the meaning of the word: Contract.” The Advisors, some of whom are my elders and have been veterans in this game a long time, were appalled and  unanimously clear: That, “no matter what an artist’s own internal business might be, or whatever occurrences or opportunities might arise, a commitment is a commitment;” and even in the case of a MD supposedly getting another gig last minute, that “it is up to the artist to work it out and show up and play the tissue paper and comb if that’s all they can do.” But under no circumstances is it “okay”, nor is it “out of your control”, especially in this case where two excuses in a matter of days were meant to invoke some kind of pity. We are agreed that you are not the injured party: In review or your emails, it was instead agreed that your tone and language were “ unprofessional, rude, and just plain bratty.” As the contracted in-writing artist they feel you should be responsible for the FULL amount (putting a price tag on all the time as well as the documented expenses) and that there should be a penalty on top of that for the breach itself. They have deemed your actions “inexcusable.”

Now to you [redacted]. Though we have no contract with you, the Advisors actually took more issue with your threats than with [redacted]’s breach. They are going to be spreading the word as to the reality of this situation and they are going to “keep [their] ears open for any negative word about the Afterglow Festival.”  As some board members were unfamiliar with your name or work, [redacted], I shared some of your resume with them; and, as many of them are affiliated with theaters and other such institutions where you work, they are going to be on “high alert” for any negative commentary coming from their colleagues about Afterglow. Their consensus, too, was that Afterglow was “too generous” in footing the bill for your travel to Provincetown; that there was no reason to have a director attend in any case. They also agreed that the casual way in which you expected their to be a MD provided (which is not in the contract with [redacted]) vis a vis the second excuse you offered for [redacted]breaching the contract, was a “flimsy attempt to justify their actions.”

It has been decided that Afterglow will, without naming names, release a statement to our colleagues at the mainly downtown theaters and clubs and labs where artists, who also appear at Afterglow, perform. We will also be inviting these colleagues to an in-house conference on the subject of “artists breaking contracts,” (thankfully, is an extremely rare thing), and the negative impact it has on non-profits, specifically, not only financially but in terms, too, of the apparent exposure of threats (like the ones your making, [redacted]) that add grave insult to already serious injury. To be clear: consensus is that the amount we are demanding as compensation for [redacted]’s breach of contract is “generous to the artist.”  And that [redacted]’s language in her email constitutes “virtue signaling” and “call-out culture tactics” which also “need to be addressed by our body and the artistic community-at-large.”

Member of the board found the entire situation shocking, not only on their own behalf and behalf of the festival organization (which produces artists elsewhere, as well, on a regular basis), but on behalf of our private sponsors and grantors. In public statement and in conversation with industry colleagues board members will make it clear that: The Afterglow Festival provides so much to its artists, raising money to travel, house, feed and pay and indeed pamper artists, who would otherwise never be able to perform in Provincetown, the birth place of modern American theater  and a century-old incubator for progressive stage craft, a legacy that Afterglow also champions along with the emerging and experimenting artists it presents. The cavalier manner in which [redacted] has cancelled his show a week out from its contracted date has caused our non-profit great loss and we are in agreement that we shall continue to seek repair in the already reduced financial figure we have itemized in our email of September 1, 2019.

Let me also be clear about the invoking of your agencies ICM and Paradigm: As with our colleagues at theatrical institutions, our board members are also affiliated, whether professionally or personally, with figures who work at both these and other agencies. They have suggested that they might be making a few preemptive phone calls in these directions, as well, in an attempt to safeguard any slanderous remarks about our non-profit arts organization. Through our affiliated grants foundations and organizations, too, we are going to propose a workshop/seminar based on what emerges from our in-house conference, utilizing information and opinion that will arise therefrom in hopes of helping other non-profit arts entities negotiate breaches of contract and the kinds of threats from artists as they two of you are making toward us. All in all it is our intention to get out in front of any reputational damage, which you have blatantly threatened (in writing) to cause our organization, with the express intention of detecting it as it occurs, rooting it out, and tracing it back to its source; at which time we will be advised as to any further action needing to take place as a result of deleterious words or actions made by you toward Afterglow, its directorship, or its board.

Please do feel free to send me both of your agency contacts so that I can keep them appraised of this unfortunate situation. Meanwhile we expect payment for the minimum expenses accrued, and outlined to you, as a result of the last-minute breach of [redacted], scheduled for [redacted], to be made to the Afterglow Festival on or before September 9, 2019.

 

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
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