Tale #24: The Cogs Don’t Always Spin

Common sense is a strange concept. The dictionary defines it as “good sense and sound judgement in practical matters.” I define it as “the ability to avoid doing dumb things”.

We are all capable of lapses in common sense. We may have left our dogs in the car with bags full of groceries. We may have left our windows rolled down and gone through the car wash. We may have neglected to replace a spare tire after our first flat.

Psst….I’m going for a car theme here.

Even though we are all capable of briefly losing our common sense, it doesn’t prevent us from being frustrated when we are the victim of someone else’s lapse of common sense. Or worse, when our car is the victim.

Sets for our productions were traditionally built on Saturday mornings. However, as our shows began to grow in size and scale, the set crews found they needed much more time and manpower than the Saturday mornings alone could provide. Therefore, they would often work in the shop with any available volunteers while the cast rehearsed in the theater.

Back in the world of inflating blueberry children and angry squirrels, there was a massively complicated set being built. Strange accent pieces and awkward contraptions filled the stage for this quirky production of Willy Wonka.

One particular piece required multiple cogs spray painted bronze, silver, and gold. These cogs were meant to reflect the authentic look of a factory. A young woman was given the task of spray painting. She was given the cogs and the spray paint and told to do it outside. No further instruction was given.

Enter the opportunity for a lapse in common sense.

As producer, I had been in the office working on some promotional stuff during this rehearsal. One of our set volunteers appeared in the doorway. I knew this parent well as he had been involved for multiple years and I taught his two daughters in dance lessons.

He looked a little panicked as he said, “please tell me that’s not your black Rav-4 parked near the garage.”

I turned to him and said, “well, it is my black Rav-4 parked near the garage. Why?”

He then said, “we had a painting issue.”

I followed him outside to realize that the girl had done her spray painting project two feet away from my car. She clearly did not realize that particles can travel in the breeze (this was pre COVID). There was gold spray paint all over the tire rim of my car. There was also spray paint in the shape of cogs on the sidewalk. Clearly, she didn’t even attempt to use a tarp.

Now at this point in time at VACT (2018), I was pretty well established. I was a board member, frequent director/choreographer, and was at the building almost daily. I think this girl was genuinely afraid when she realized it was my car she had painted.

I remained very calm (or at least in my head I was calm) as I explained why she should not have spray painted so close to people’s vehicles and that the common sense thing to do was to take a tarp and go out in the grass.

I then proceeded to go back into the office, call Mama Terry, and start sobbing.

We were both flabbergasted at the lack of common sense displayed in this situation. My mom immediately told me to go home. She said she didn’t care if I was the producer, someone else could cover for me. I needed to go home and cool off.

So, I texted my friend Sara who was stage managing and told her that I was going to need to leave a little early on account of my sobbing in the office.

Luckily, the body shop was able to get the paint out with a little bit of chemical solution. It decreased the strength of the fender panel itself, but at least my car doesn’t have gold on it.

I have since learned that you need to be very, very specific when giving project instructions to volunteers. This woman was very intelligent, but had a lapse in common sense.

Always account for potential lapses in common sense.