This definitely won’t reach the people who need to hear it, but I need to share my experience at Woodminster. For starters: if it’s a dream show/role, if you’re in need of performing opportunities, and you can financially afford it, I’d say just do it. However, they are the most unprofessional theater company I’ve ever worked with. It is an equity house, but you would never know unless someone told you. Woodminster is so disconnected from the rest of the Bay Area theater community that they don't recognize their own unprofessional practices. I’ve done a couple of shows here, but I will primarily be talking about one of them. Buckle up! This will be LONG. Beginning Context: This theater is owned by one family, and there are 3 siblings of importance: X, Y, and Z. X is the artistic director/producer/director of every show (even though they BARELY direct, if they do it’s purely staging related). Y is the choreographer (usually)/box office manager/runs the casting email. Y acts more like a director than X. Z is in the ensemble of EVERY show they do (over 100 shows at this point). The only reason why Z is equity is because they’ve done shows at Woodminster since they were a kid, and is cast because they’re family, not because of their skills. Z literally only performs AT Woodminster. Back when Woodminster could afford more AEA contracts Z basically acted as the required equity ensemble member. Equity: They do not follow equity break rules. We’ve gone well over 80 minutes without a break several times. This last show I did they told Equity that it’s a student show when it’s not (I don't know the specific contract because I’m non-union) in order to maintain the ability to hire some equity actors. Due to covid they can’t afford the amount of AEA contracts they used to. Several AEA actors were not on AEA contracts and were doing the show under a different name in order to not get in trouble with Equity. Yes, it was those actors’ choice to do that, but the theater agreed to it as well. Disrespecting the Actors: Every word that comes out of Y’s mouth comes off as condescending. Y is not a kind person and made me feel like an idiot whenever I needed to ask them about something. During this last show, Y mocked a cast member behind her back IN FRONT OF OTHER CAST MEMBERS. Seeing Y do that made me feel so icky. Y is in a position of power and should NOT be doing that with the rest of the cast in the room. Y was literally doing the cast member’s voice. It’s disgusting. Before one of our performances, the mother of X/Y/Z (who helps run the company) started yelling at a cast member after we ran a group number about how they were doing a specific move wrong every single night. In front of everybody. The mother had been present at several rehearsals/performances before that and she decided to yell about that on the 2nd weekend? Also…our choreographer (NOT Y) was there. If the choreographer had an issue they would’ve said something. Y also made a mild body-shaming comment. We were discussing the cast/crew potluck that was happening and Y said something to the extent of “don’t overindulge ladies, those costumes still need to fit.” Not the worst comment, but unnecessary. Rehearsals/Tech Process: The rehearsal/tech process is incredibly inefficient. When rehearsing we always start from the top of the show. I.e. if we left off blocking on Act 1 scene 10, we won’t start the following rehearsal with scene 10, we have to run from the beginning first. This makes it so the beginning of each act is much cleaner than the rest of the show because we always start from the top of the act we’re working on. We rarely ever stopped to clean things. We can run something and it can be a mess, but they’ll just keep going anyway. Woodminster doesn’t do Cue to Cue, so you just have to hope that certain scene transitions will get cleaner the more we run the show. We get lectured by Y for how messy the scene changes are, but we were never formally assigned who’s doing what. It’s just a free for all. They also don’t do quick change rehearsals, which makes the actors feel very unsupported in terms of making sure they’re getting help for the change. Again, you just have to hope things will work out the more we run the show. Even though all the actors are mic'd, the sound ops don't always turn the ensemble mics on for group numbers. This is a large outdoor amphitheater, so if the mics aren't on you can barely hear, which sucks the energy out of the group songs. The SM is in high school I believe. It appears their only relevant experience is volunteering at Woodminster. They were not the one doing most of the SM jobs. It was mostly X and Y. Their daily calls were not formatted/worded in the most professional manner and were sometimes unclear about who was called. Dealing With Offensive Script Material: Both shows I was in had outdated/offensive moments that were not only kept, but the creative team didn’t recognize them as offensive at all. No disclaimer in the program. There wasn’t a discussion about how we as actors felt about that material. The theater made no effort to separate themselves from the writers of these shows. One scene in this last show has a drag queen, and as we were blocking it X said “And then the transgender walks onstage.” Trans isn’t a noun. Ugh. X directed this already offensive scene in a way that feeds the “man in a dress” stereotype. Casting: While the leads are super talented, the ensemble is a toss-up. They prioritize good dancers over everything else usually, which means vocals can be lacking. They also sometimes end up with cast members who don’t know what they’re doing, but because they’ve known the people at Woodminster for over 50 years, they’ll be put in the show if they ask. For this last show, they didn’t cast 2 supporting roles until the 2nd rehearsal, and they picked those 2 roles from the members of the ensemble…in front of everyone. Why weren’t they cast ahead of time? There’s a difference between receiving an offer for ensemble vs a featured role with lines/solo moments. Both actors were 100% right for the roles; it’s the fact they were chosen mid-rehearsal in front of everybody. They also cast a local politician in the ensemble who missed a TON of rehearsals including our last 2 dress rehearsals, so they didn’t know what they were doing/where to be at many points. We don’t know why they weren’t present. I don’t know this as fact, but it really looks like they only cast the politician to bring more people to the show, as they spoke right before every performance and were filming promotional materials. The politician also called the theater “Woodminister” in these promotional videos. Safety/Cleanliness: The stage floor is not safe. It’s made up of uneven wood boards, so it was a constant tripping hazard. The dressing rooms are absolutely disgusting. They look like they haven’t been cleaned in years. A rat was spotted several times throughout rehearsals/performances. Nothing was done. I know it’s an outdoor theater but they could at least put out traps. Positives? It’s cool to perform outside, and the cast is good to work with (and the performances themselves are fun). If you’re booking regularly and don’t need the experience, I’d say run. Far.