<p> …anyone ever get stiffed by an actual church?</p>
<p>I found an ad in a paper for an all-instruments-wanted, open-performance thing at a certain church in a small town. It would be "to showcase local talent", etc. I figured that it would be unpaid, and feel more like a not-too-promising audition than a real gig. I also hesitate to take general open-to-all ads like that, because it is usually just begging to get taken advantage of, or to have your time and effort wasted. So, I decided off the bat to let them know that I am an actual full-time professional at this, a piano/organ doubler looking for work in either instrument. I got a friendly general reply back from the person who ran the ad, saying that she would talk to the people at the church and get back to me. I shrugged and figured, Whatever happens, happens.</p>
<p>Tonight, I got a strange e-mail in my box. It was an exchange between this other church contact, and the original one who answered me. I got a BCC of it, and it looks like I was actually not supposed to see it, because it mentions me behind my back explicitly. If they actually meant for me to see the following, that’s even weirder:</p>
<p>The first paragraph tells the person to get me to play the show, but to stress to me that they "cannot afford to pay at this point". That didn’t come as any huge surprise to me, so, I just chuckled and figured as much, but remained interested (if you see my other thread on this site, I am newly gigging again after missing time due to health problems- I need contacts and opportunities almost as much as I need the bread itself). </p>
<p>The second paragraph got sketchier. It said that the person was "serious about" some guitarist that they had just auditioned, after auditioning "several around the state". It told the second contact to schedule a dinner gig for the guitarist, charge for the dinner, and "for the entertainment", e.g., give this guitarist a paid gig, while I am apparently left to: A) play for giggles; and never hear a word about the existence of this paid guitarist and his/her secret dinner gig, paid by the largesse of this congregation that is supposedly too strapped to spare a cent for me. My first name was mentioned, but that of the mysterious guitarist never was; therefore, I don’t even know if I know the cat, or what. </p>
<p>Apparently, this e-mail must have been forwarded to me mistakenly- it was clearly not meant for my eyes, right?</p>
<p>Am I either misunderstanding something, or feeling offended without justification? From what I read in this mail, this sounds like a shady thing for a church, of all places, to do- and it does feel pretty insulting. They can throw a big dinner event and scratch up respectable bread for the guitarist, but not pay me jack for playing a public performance for them? Why was this person auditioned before the ad even went out this past weekend? </p>
<p>Did I just get an accidental heads-up that I’m being gamed? Probably sounds pretty obvious; I’ve just never imagined an actual church pulling this kind of weirdness before! Isn’t that pretty much against everything that they preach?
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