CMU School of Drama


Saturday, July 07, 2007

Thanks, Mel!

Steve On Broadway (SOB): "Need another reason to be outraged about the $450 top ticket price for the upcoming Young Frankenstein Broadway show? According to New York Post's Michael Riedel, it is serving as further ammunition for a potential fall strike among stagehands."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't a career as a stagehand generally considered one of the most overpaid jobs in technical theatre?

-J. said...

Uh, by whom?

I work 80+ hour weeks, 6-7 days per week far away from home in conditions that range from uncomfortable to disgusting. I work under a union contract that says I can be worked continuously, without a break, for an unlimited duration. I've spent decades learning esoterica on topics from rigging to electronics to vocal performance. I can load a 53' tractor trailer with 2.5 million dollars worth of sound gear in under an hour without anything coming out the other side in pieces. My daily driver is a state of the art, all-digital sound console connected to a series of computer systems that require experience in UNIX, OS X, Windows and MS-DOS - oh, and they're all networked together, and I'm the network administrator for that, too.

That's just a tiny insight into my skillset. Other people may differ. That is what I need to do my job as "just a stagehand".

-J