A Cautionary Tale: Being Early is Being On Time

Do as I say, not as I do! That is the lesson to be learned through the Cautionary Tales -- I make these mistakes so you don't have to. Here's my tale about testing the clock.

For those of you that don't know, I recently made my Off-Broadway debut in a musical production of Alice in Wonderland. Throughout the rehearsal process, I prided myself on my timeliness: I was often one of the first actors to arrive, I'd always have a chance to get settled and take a breath before rehearsal began, and I was pleased that I had established that expectation and habit for myself right out of the gate (it is a necessary habit). At the start of the process, our rehearsals were exclusively scheduled on weekdays; Saturday rehearsals were only added in for the last couple weeks leading up to opening. That said, I had mastered the train schedules during the week (as they're consistently scheduled for the same times every day), and I had figured out the best trains to take to give myself ample time to get to the theatre.

Our first weekend rehearsal comes up, and I realize that the trains from my station into NYC only run once an hour, and the way our rehearsal lines up with the train schedule gives me the option of either being over an hour early or about ten minutes early. So being the overly-cautious human that I am, I decided that for my first trip in on a weekend, I needed to take the earlier train just in case there were any delays.

Wouldn't you know it, there weren't any delays, and I was exceedingly early! Hooray! What a lovely surprise!

So when the next Saturday rehearsal came around and I was faced with that same decision, I traded an overly-cautious Heidi-Liz for an overly-confident Heidi-Liz. I decided that if the trains were as consistent on the weekends as they were on weekdays, I could absolutely take the later train, no problem. Plus, an extra hour of sleep? Score!

Oh how naive I was.

On that fateful day, every single one of my trains was late, one by over twenty minutes. So suddenly, I had gone from being way early to being flat out LATE to calltime. I think I finally arrived at the theatre twenty-five minutes past the hour. And just imagine if that had happened on a day when I had a show!

Obviously, tardiness isn't a good look for any career, but in the theatre? Depending on your contract (and definitely in equity productions), you can be fined for being late. And that's the least action taken.

Needless to say, I learned my lesson that day, and I hope you've learned from me so that you don't have to have this experience! You are not on time if you are not early. I mean think about it! You have oodles and oodles of time leading up to any appointment -- planning ahead and being even a little early is easy! Being "on time" is nearly impossible given that it only exists for ONE MINUTE IN TIME. After that one minute, you're late, plain and simple, and it only gets worse the more minutes that pass you by. You follow me?

So! From now on, you'll find me leaving absurdly early for calltimes in the city! I'd rather have to find ways to entertain myself for an extra hour than be fighting for my life against the NY transit systems, powers beyond my control. I will get so much reading done, how exciting!

Thanks for reading, #DreamTeamHLJ, and when in doubt, take the earlier train.