Of Mice and Men

When Beth was Artistic Director

She didn’t put up with any of the macho bullshit

Beau used to let slip

She wanted all the drinking before shows stopped

Hell, some people used to drink during shows

That’s how bad we were

But you have to understand

These were habits that went on for ten years

And all of a sudden

We were just supposed to cut it out?

I never had a problem drinking

But that’s only because my brother did

And I had to spend most of my time

Keeping an eye on him

There was another guy in the company at the time

Who was just as bad as my brother was

And pretty soon

I was watching out for him too

We all were

As soon as Beth took over

We knew this guy was going to be in trouble

Unless we convinced him to get help

So we did one of those interventions

And, uh…

Well, it didn’t work

So instead, we just started covering for him

You know, the way people do

When they’re in that situation

But one night, he was so out of it onstage

He fell and almost cracked his head open

We had to stop the show

And when Beth found out

She canned him

I didn’t bother keeping in touch with him after that

I figured I knew how that story was going to end

And why did I want to know about it?

You know, Beau looked at all of us

As a sort of family

He could be mean

And he could fly off the handle

And fire people now and again

But the people who needed to be there

Like that guy

Well, he took care of those people

Beth just ran the whole thing like a business

It’s my personal experience

That theater shouldn’t be run like a business

If I had wanted to go into business

I would have worked for GE

I went into theater

Because I liked the passion

And the compassion

Do you understand what I’m saying?

My brother died while we were doing Of Mice and Men

And Beth didn’t even go to the funeral

I don’t even think she knew I had a brother

Or if she did, she figured she didn’t need

To show me any love

And I never had any love for her

Or the Orpheus Theater

After that

In my opinion, when art turns into business

Everything starts going downhill real fast

But hey, that’s just my opinion