The Show Will Go On
If you read this blog regularly, you know I am a recovering actor. For 14 years I did everything from stage, television, and film to commercials, industrials and lots of voiceover.
Even though I no longer make my living in the profession, I keep my dues paid up in the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), just in case. I took voluntary withdrawal from membership in Actors Equity Association, which covers theatre actors and stage managers, because I doubt I’ll be doing any of that any time soon, but I keep up on the issues and concerns of working performers nevertheless.
So I have been watching with interest the ongoing negotiations between Equity and the League of American Theatres and Producers, the coordinating body for producers. The two sides reached a tentative agreement late on Monday after talks had broken off over the weekend.
The contract between the two expired June 27, and negotiations were held since then to try to resolve the issues of nonunion tours, soaring health care costs and worker safety. Tentative agreements had been reached on the last two items, but the thorny issue of nonunion tours kept both sides far apart and threatened to force actors to the picket lines.
Now you may need a little background. Despite the astronomical salaries granted to some big name movie stars, actors as a group are not rich. Performers in any medium who make over $50,000 a year represent less than 1% of the total population of professional unionized actors. The vast majority of working actors will earn less than $5,000 in any given year. And stage performers are the poorest.
Where movie and television actors have the benefit of larger national exposure and thus high revenue potential, not to mention residual payments, theatre is live and local. The only people who see it and pay for it are the audience members in the city where the play is staged. Thus pay scales for Equity members are more working class, even on Broadway. Payment for nonunion stage actors is often exploitative.
That was the sticking point over the issue of nonunion touring shows. You see, a Broadway play, produced under an Equity contract, develops the show’s reputation and following. Whether it’s Rent, The Producers, Hairspray or some other show, its glamour is created while it plays in New York. Then after the show closes or it makes back its money to investors, the rights are licensed to a touring company to mount a production that will travel around the country to smaller communities, to make even more money.
The problem, as Equity sees it, is that experienced professionals are not used in these shows, thus depriving working actors from making a living, while producers make tons of money charging high ticket prices while paying nonunion actors non-living wages. (There are horror stories about how little some of these people are paid while expected to survive on the road.) Audiences in these small towns are also being deceived, because they think they’re seeing “Broadway” shows.
It is a system that only benefits producers and simply isn’t fair. As far as the union is concerned a new contract agreement without changes to the touring system was a nonstarter.
Luckily, producers have come to their senses. When weekend talks broke off, and Equity scheduled a meeting to discuss a strike authorization from members, producers for two shows broke ranks with their bargaining unit and signed an interim agreement on their own with the actors. Obviously recognizing a lack of unity on their side, and fearing a repeat of last year’s four day musicians strike that cost them $5 million dollars, producers sat down with union reps Monday and reached a tentative agreement. The agreement will need ratification by rank and file members on both sides in order to be finalized.
This is welcome news to all the people who enjoy live theatre, but more importantly to all those who make their living from it. Despite the perceptions of some who think acting is a frivolous pursuit, or not much more than a hobby, certainly not “real work,” it is profession with a long history of giving millions of people great joy, excitement and enlightenment. All actors want is the right to work at a fair and decent wage.
Posted by bernie at July 12, 2004 9:11 PMTrackBack