Since I read anything that has Mercedes' name attached to it and I download her advice frequently, I offer these thoughts with some trepidation -- not as a professional musician, but as a professional woman in her late 50's who has held, and holds, professional positions and has helped interview other hires for several of the same.
(1) The position or "job", so to speak, is the company's. It is the task of the applicant to the best of his or her ability to help contribute as successfully as he or she can to the part of the company's mission that the job represents. If that job happens to showcase the employee's talents, so much the better ? but the task, from the company's point of view, is to help the company to success, not the applicant.
(2) Any company will have constraints in resources ? be they human or material. Clever applicants find ways to use or leverage existing resources to accomplish the mission. Unless the company is expected to hire the applicant's support chain along with the applicant, the applicant would be expected to use the resources the company supplies. really good employees find ways to do so creatively.
And, since part of the skill set required of any good job is the demonstrated ability to work with others, it might just be the better part of valor to attempt to work with them cheerfully from the beginning.
(3) It can be a sign of insecurity in an applicant to act as if he or she knows the job better than the people who need to fill the position. And while it is quite possible that the applicant might know a great deal about the job, an attitude that indicates superiority to the job or to the people hiring for it is often not very helpful to the applicant. Better get the job first and then demonstrate the superiority and receive the bouquets.
It is very possible that the production is run by mediocre people with slipshod habits in an amateurish way. It is her choice whether to participate or not ? but I, personally hope she chooses to lay aside her apprehensions for the moment and attempts the audition. And, I hope if she chooses to audition or take part in the production that someone at the audition or someone on the production or someone attending the performances will pay attention to her talents and further her career in the ways we all hope for.
I wish Mercedes all the success in the world.
Best
Deb. Johnson
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