Being a veteran member of the theater department, people often looked to me as a leader. During the last month of rehearsals, many cast members were disappointed with our absent director and the poor state of the show so close to opening night. However, during a break, I gathered many first-year artists and encouraged them to be more understanding of the director, a teacher busy with his personal life outside of teaching and directing, and suggested that instead to feel frustrated by the lack of show brilliance, to put more effort into rehearsals so that our show was the best it could be. And, indeed, we ended up having not one, but an entire fantastic weekend