About A Really Really Nice Person

You know it is really not that often you come across a really, really nice person. A...Another Man's Poison, Off Broadway person who is nice and giving for really no apparent reason. They don’t know you, couldn’t want anything from you. It is, seemingly, just their personality.

I am sharing an experience I had just this past week while working on an Off Broadway play. It wasn’t that it was so exciting, or even exciting for me per se. It was just unexpected, especially when people who work in media, whether theater, film, TV, etc. sometimes can be snobbish, stand-offish and just not personable. (I’ve only had a few “nice people” experiences in film so far).

While working with the producer, Sheila Speller, at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater on West 42nd Street, I had to step out to pick up my son from Camp Intrepid, which luckily was just blocks away (44th & Hudson River). When we returned to the theater to wait for daddy to come get our boy, I knew it would be a challenge to keep a curious 7 year old contained while I continued to work, but what could I do? (I mean, outside of being armed with chocolate chip cookies).

The stage manager for …Another Man’s Poison began her process of making sure everyone on the tech team was present and preparing for the 7pm show. I could vaguely overhear her saying stuff like “…and he’s the person who controls the sound” and “she’s the person who turns up the lights…,” “let’s see what these guys back here are doing...” All the while, Rawm had wandered from my sight, into the theater.

It wasn’t until someone shouted “Tuesday, look at your son!” and I watched my (scrawny I might add) little boy donned in waaay oversized rigging gloves drawing the ropes for the scenic stage curtain, that I realized she was taken him on a full fledged tour of behind the scenes in the theater. Dressed in headset and mic he communicated with the stage hands backstage and learned what buttons to push for crickets, cars whizzing by on the street, police sirens, voice-over announcements and airplanes taking off. He got to see the costumes being prepped and the stage hands also gave an impromptu dance performance on stage (the show takes place in the 70s so there’s always good music on queue.)

My son enjoyed his time at the theater so much he was beside himself. I finished what I was working on without any disruption and he was engaged the entire time… all because of a fun-loving cast and crew and one woman who took the perfect opportunity to create a learning experience that will probably never be forgotten. Thank you, Bayo, for just being a really, really, nice person.