Grrr...

So I get an e-mail out of the blue from a director with a small off-loop theatre company here in town who was referred to me by the people who did Seascape. They told him that I was always looking for good costume design work, so he contacted me to see if I was available and interested in designing Medea in a timeless modern style for them. I send a flurry of e-mails back and forth, and as I'm at the laundromat this morning (ok, it was morning for ME... really it was about noon), I get a call from their production manager. I've heard from various theatre sources that this company is notorious for being cheap with their designers/staff, so I know I'm going to have to drive my asking price up to get a stipend that would make this worth doing, and even so, I'll probably have to find some other work to supplement the income. We do the monetary dance, and I end up driving up the price about 20% higher than he was offering -- still not a lot, but I felt decent about it. I get off the phone, and tell Bil all about it, rather excitedly.
And then I get a call back from the production manager. He says that they made a bit of a mistake... that there had been some misunderstanding. He tells me that one of their company members was also offered the job and that he thought she had declined, but she had actually said, "I don't know". So they needed to wait on her because they needed to give priority to company members, yada, yada, yada.
So my question, two readers (if there are even that many), is this: if they call back and ask me to do this show, should I let bygones be bygones, or should I tell them that I've booked something in the meantime and leave them high and dry? And should I use the same cliche turns of phrase that I've just utilized? I could, in the meantime apply to the Weathervane in New Hampshire, where I worked two years ago, to be a designer for a show or two with them... grrr... I hate it when people do this. It's pretty fucked up and unprofessional and it makes them seem like they don't really have their shit together. What should I do?

in other, much more exciting news, one of the shows on which I'm currently working is now open and playing at the Theatre Building Chicago on Belmont. Very exciting. And I think I'm going to fill out the form and spend the $100 to enroll as an Equity Membership candidate, as I'm eligible for 11-12 weeks from this show.

If you are in the Chicago area between now and the 22nd of April, you must come see this show. It's pretty good. And there's always the off-chance that I might lose my headset onstage during a set change--it happened just last night, for instance. But seriously, it's funny!

And if you will be in Chicago between the 31 of March and the 29th of April, you should come check out my mad propping and scenic painting skillZ (yes, that's right skillZ with a Z -- I'm that good) on Signal Ensemble Theatre's production of She Stoops to Conquer. Also, you should see it because Bil's in it, and he's funny. Really. Additionally, you must see it so that I may live vicariously through you, oh sole-reader-who-is-my-husband-and-therefore-cannot-see-it-because-you-are-in-it, because I cannot actually go see this show because my other show (see above) is running against it and I'm in tech for the Chicago Opera theatre the last weekend of the run. It's good to be booked, but this is ridiculous! Anywho, come see the show!
I'll link it as soon as they update their site.

That is all.