Retrospective thoughts

Last night was the closing of my latest show that ran for 29 performances.  I've never done that many shows before.  We had a small gathering afterwards and as you'd expect we talked about a lot of different topics.  One in particular that came up was the mixing of social circles between musicians and actors.  I was trying to explain that when musicians (pit musicians, for example) come into a show near the end of the rehearsal process, we haven't been a part of the camaraderie the rest of the cast experiences.  When I'm in the cast and have friends in the pit, I make sure to talk to them and include them as best I can.  Now this specific question being raised was why does it seem musicians don't mingle with the actors?  The discussion turned to the meshing of music students and theatre students in various schools and degree programs.  For example, when a "green room" (holding room/lounge used mostly by actors involved with a show) is full of actors, musicians typically don't know what a green room is, and once they see it full of a group of students they don't know, they're not likely to walk in and get cozy. 

So is this typical of musicians and actors?  I think it would hold true no matter what the two groups are.  Most people don't have the confidence to walk into a small room full of people they don't know and strike up a conversation just for the hell of it.  Now why is this so hard for actors and musicians?  Aren't we all artists? 

Yes, but look at it this way.  The similarities between the arts of music and theatre are nearly endless.  It involves personal creativity, working through a process to try and achieve a certain product, some measure of talent makes the process a little easier, and when the product leads to applause, most artists feel fulfilled.  A lot of this can be said of visual artists as well.  The difference here is music and theatre collaborate more often than others, which brings us back to the question of why these two groups don't immediately mingle. 

I have some theories, and I'm interested to hear other thoughts, but the biggest one that logically comes to mind is that many musicians (pit musicians specifically, in the world of collaboration) play instruments that involve their mouths.  They read their single line of music, and when they all do it together, the score is the result.  Drummers play loudly and can't hear anyway, and pianists are too busy reading multiple staves to be able to worry about talking to people.  ;)  (ok I'm sure I'll get some haters for that one and to you I say: relax.)  Joking aside, the pit musician is a hired professional who comes in, does their job, wants to get paid, and leave.  If theatre is not a passion of theirs, getting chummy with the cast typically holds little to no interest.  It's rarely personal, it's the way of the musicians world.  That lifestyle is not a social one - not in the rehearsal.  Socializing comes afterward, usually at a bar, and usually with adult beverages.  This is the one place I see the most mingling occur.  Actors enjoy a post-show beverage and many pit musicians appreciate the same.  Let the chit-chat commence. 

I wish I didn't have to say this, but I've learned enough about the internet to say that clearly this is not a blanket statement about all actors and all musicians.  These are my opinions.  If you disagree, write your own blog.  With regards to this topic, I'm somewhere in the middle as I've music directed/been a pit musician and acted in numerous shows.  I have a few dear friends (musicians) that I hire whenever I can that always connect to the cast and always come out with us afterwards.  I've also worked with actors that hold zero respect for the work the pit puts in.  It goes both ways and no one statement can ever encompass an entire group.  Like I said at the start, it was an interesting topic and I gave it some more thought and though the idea of musicians and actors mingling makes sense on paper, they're really different art forms that shouldn't have any expectations thrusted upon them.  Actors and musicians rarely like being told what to do.