Sunday, January 09, 2011
Spider-Man and Equity
Actors' Equity Association: "I have been very disturbed and distraught by the serious injuries sustained by our member Chris Tierney at the December 20th performance of SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK. My thoughts and prayers have been with him for the past ten days, and I have been in touch with him by phone and e-mail. Chris is a study in toughness and grace. Hemingway defined guts as 'grace under pressure.' Guts is what Chris Tierney has consistently displayed both before and after his accident.
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3 comments:
The article serves as a reprimand to those who choose to blame Equity for the injuries on the stage of Spider-man. this projection is understandable, but perhaps misplaced. The dangers associated with the injuries in this performance are not entirely the responsibility of Equity. the most recent dancer to hurt himself during this show was injured, because his harness, while attached to him was not connected to anything above him. This mishap was the result of an oversight on the part of some member of the technical staff. if these oversights can be avoided then the safety of the production can be vastly improved.
Such a PR nightmare for everybody involved. This article was basically a "don't blame us" from AEA
I didn't find this article to be a PR nightmare. On the contrary, I thought that Equity did a good job of responding to the criticism apparently raised by some of its members. The most important thing here I think is their protection of theatre as an art form. It's true, if we bubble wrap our shows, we also take their essence and life away from them. Accidents do happen, and will continue to happen. And while this is perhaps dark humor, on discussion with a friend about this incident his remark "Well that's why they have understudies!" struck a chord with me. The point is, bad things will happen, but as Equity says, we should do our best to prevent it if we can.
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