Shufflin' off this mortal tour

Or at the very least, off to Buffalo. Yep, here I am, in beautiful Buffalo, NY, right near the airport, ready to amaze the Buffalo kids tomorrow. Hopefully we'll amaze them more than we amazed the kids in Pittsburgh this morning. We performed at a place called Shady Side Academy, a posh high school which looks more like a small liberal arts college, and apparently is the funnel from which flows future Ivy Leaguers. All in all, the kind of place that makes my skin crawl. However, they have an absolutely amazing theatre space, so I can dis them too much. No crew or ushers, but an amazing theatre space. And the kids we brought in did perk up during Sleepy and became more and more attentive as the show went on. I did find out they were a mix of both middle and high school students, and high schoolers are usually less responsive anyway, so I believe they ended up enjoying the show even if they weren't as boisterous in their enjoyment as some. I am having a lot of fun as the tour winds down with the show, not that I didn't earlier. I think maybe because the show's almost over, and I'm not coming back in the fall, I'm focusing more on enjoying it than I was earlier, when I was focused more on making sure I was getting it right. I am feeling more comfortable in the role in Tell Tale (finally--and naturally with only a few weeks left) so that's a load off my mind, freeing me up to have a better time. I will miss this show, even though it drives me crazy sometimes. I've been doing it for almost a year now, which is a difficult concept for me to get my head around. It doesn't feel like that long, while at the same time it feels as if I've been doing this show since I graduated college. But it is a fun show to do. And a challenge, which is always welcome. It's exactly the kind of show I like to do--one where I get to play a number of different characters with a wide and varying range. And as difficult the whole thing has been, both in rehearsals and the tour itself, I appreciate the experience and what I have gotten out of it. It was something i had never really done, not for this long, and I am happy I went ahead and did it. And I'm glad in a way that Chamber is so nuts about how they present the show since that was also a challenge. I'm far more used to dealing with theatres that let me have a far more fee hand when it comes to characterization, so to be hamstrung in as many ways as I was by chamber was a good exercise. But I am looking forward to getting back to Chicago and getting my career back on the road I was trying to go down when I decided to take some time off and do the tour. Hopefully I can do that without too much trouble. I mean hell, there's got to be ONE agent in Chicago who needs to add a goofy redhead to their stable, right? RIGHT???? 

So tonight's rant is about something I heard about from my parents back when we were in Milwaukee. There's a story going on in that town dealing with a 23 year old or so teacher who died tragically. It appears this guy was at a bar when some yahoo started harassing some woman outside. He stepped in to protect her, and the guy who was harassing her hit him, knocking him down and causing him to hit his head, which in turn caused him to die. Now, that's tragic enough, but that's not the point of the story. That happened this past February. Well, in April, the landlord/management company of the teacher's apartment sent a letter to the guy's parents, demanding storage fees for the property of his that had stayed in the apartment for two months while the parents grieved, along with back rent for those two months AND (and this is the part that kills me) a penalty fee for (and please, allow me to quote...) "early termination of lease." Yes, you read that right. Apparently death is equal to running out on your lease. And what's even MORE heinous about this situation is that the management company is completely within its legal rights. WHAT?? Excuse me? You're telling me that the death of a tenant is legally akin to breaking the lease? That's ridiculous! I could accept the fact that since the guy's property stayed in the apartment for two months they are looking for the other fees and the rent, but early termination of lease? When a guy breaks a lease, that is a conscious decision, and an action they take voluntarily. This guy died. And since it wasn't suicide, it was NOT a voluntary act, nor one he made consciously. Therefore, the two things are NOT the same. To treat them as similar is to be blind to simple logic and the specific details of any case. It's to be somewhat expected since they aren't dealing with an actual landlord but rather a corporation, but even in a faceless corporation there's SOMEONE who has to write these stupid ass letters and who should be able to take the extra few minutes to actually read the details of the situation and realize that sending that letter makes the company look like a bunch of money-grubbing heartless assholes. Which they more than likely are, but usually money-grubbing heartless assholes are more protective of their image. And while I at first did understand them seeking the storage and rent fees, I then found out that at no point PRIOR to this letter did the management company try to get in touch with the family. Basic decency requires that you at least give the people notice that if they do leave the property in the apartment after the paid-for remainder of February is over they will incur a fee and be expected to pay for another month's rent. But they never did, so as far as I'm concerned, they are SOL. If you don't let people know what the consequences of their actions will be, you cannot  benefit from those consequences. What amazes me even more is that there are people defending these management companies who pull this crap. The argument they use is that the company is within their legal rights. I am not disputing that fact. What i am saying is that the concept that this could be legal is insane, and even if they ARE within their legal rights, simple human decency, compassion and common sense should have stepped in and kept the company from doing something like this. Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD do it. I am sickened by the idea that these people would be willing to take these parents to court in order to get this money. And there are people who actually wonder why the economy is in the crapper when this kid of thing happens. It's just another example of how things have been so skewed to protecting the corporation in this country and allowing them to make ridiculous, unfair, and unethical rules to play by, then looking amazed when they take advantage of people. How anyone can listen to something like this and not think that the thing that government should be doing is making sure all industries are strictly regulated to protect the consumers, and not the corporations. And this wouldn't get in the way of competition. Everyone is allowed to do what they can to do better than their competitors, they just can't be unethical about it.  How may more stories do we have to hear about people being taken advantage of by companies to the great profit of the company and the great detriment of the consumer before we say enough is enough and actually support getting federal regulations in place for every industry? Why are we still having the discussion as to whether regulation is a) a good idea or b) needed? It's obviously needed since the lack of it got us to this point, and it is a good idea if for no other reason than there hasn't been any OTHER idea floated that is better than it. Get off your asses, America, and get behind this idea and try to make it work. That way, if it doesn't, no-one can point to stupid political infighting as the reason. That way the idea lives or dies on its own merits, the way it SHOULD be. So vote for Pond in 2012--He'll Keep the Country Regular!