I met Vonzel Reynolds in 1992, after I had just
graduated from high school in Tallahassee, Florida. Vonzel and I were attending
the local community college at the time and were very involved in the arts.
Both of us came from a musical background and sort of gravitated into theatre
in college. I chose to interview Vonzel
because we are entering into a new theatrical venture this year together and
wanted to get to know him better. We haven’t seen each other for over 12 years.
Here is our transcript:
“Vonzel, now that we have laughed for two hours
now, I think its time to do my assignment.”
“Yes,
yes of course. Only if we can continue laughing through it”
“Oh, of course. Well, you know that Noble
(husband) and I are moving our animation company and theatre company to new
heights this year and we are both in a masters program at Full Sail University.
The course that I am currently taking is Negotiation and Deal-Making and this
interview is part of an interview blog.
“OK.”
“I going to ask you a few questions listed in
our assignment.”
“Shoot.”
“Ok, Positional bargaining as explained in our
text, “Getting to Yes”, is a strategy. It is two groups or individuals that are
bargaining but have their own positions. It explains that often times when
people bargain this way they usually end up compromising or leaving the table
not being able to agree. They each have a position and they are sticking to it.
Have you ever heard of this term?”
“Not
that term but of course I have been in this situation before.”
“Yes, Please tell me when you have ever had to negotiate
and you noticed that you were going no where?
“Uh,
I can’t really say, well, yes, as you know I direct my own plays. Plays that I
have written. Well, right now I am writing a black history play for my brother
and before we started he was constantly asking when was it going to get
finished. I keep telling him that I would not be rushed or I couldn’t just turn
a script out in one week. We both had valid issues. He wanted to start
promoting and I hadn’t put one word to paper. I had my own position and he had
his. For weeks we didn’t even talk because he just couldn’t understand that I
couldn’t just turn the switch on. Well, you know the end to the problem. I
asked you to come in and help keep me focused and writing and well, it has kept
him off my back.”
“Ha, and for the record now on mine.”
“Yeah,
but you answer his calls.” (Laugh)
“This leads me to my next term, “separating the
people from the problem.” Do you think that because he was your brother that
that played an issue in your negotiations? You are the older brother right?”
“Yes
and he was ordering me around and sending me text messages. He knew that was
not the best way to get me to do something.”
“Were you not able to see the real issue and
just talk with him about the script getting done? What I am asking is, did you
find yourself thinking more about him being your little brother than him being
the persons asking you to write a script for him?”
“Um,
I don’t know. I guess that could have been an issue but I didn’t care.”
“(Laugh) I know, I just had to ask.”
“Vonzel, you mentioned that you eventually had
to bring on other writers for the project. You said that you did this in order
to get your brother off your back and to complete the script. Mutual benefit is
a term that is used in negotiating to describe a possible outcome to a
bargaining situation. A party or group would look for a solution that would
benefit each. Is this a tool or should I say concept that you used?”
“I
mean of course I never thought of it that way, but I would say, yes. Of course
I wanted to write. I love to write. I live to write and I told my brother that
I would do it, but I didn’t know that I would get hounded. I asked you and
other ladies to help write because I felt that I didn’t have to do it alone. I
talked with him about it and we both agreed to move forward and that’s when he
called you right? I didn’t know he was going to call you first but I was glad
when I talked with you. Yes, we did find a way to get to where we wanted to go.
“Ok, well, that’s all the questions that I have for
you. Thank you and I look forward to
seeing the production.”
