Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer: For those of you reading my Godspell Blog, you know that I'm in the midst of teching Godspell. Techs for Broadway shows can be some of the most expensive and time consuming events leading up to a show's first performance. A big musical can easily spend more than $1mm in labor alone just getting the set in the door and up on its feet. But that's not what this blog is about.
Monday, October 10, 2011
The incongruity of our contracts.
Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer: For those of you reading my Godspell Blog, you know that I'm in the midst of teching Godspell. Techs for Broadway shows can be some of the most expensive and time consuming events leading up to a show's first performance. A big musical can easily spend more than $1mm in labor alone just getting the set in the door and up on its feet. But that's not what this blog is about.
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7 comments:
This is an issue that I feel everyone has noticed at some point. Planning a schedule is a nightmare for many people, including myself. We all work different hours, and in some cases are required to work different hours. Ken brings up a great point that you think we would all try and get on the same page during tech to make the best show possible. Unions continue to develop and the interaction seen don't always make sense. We can only hope in the future that there will be better ways to fulfill the scheduling process. In the meantime, its up to the individuals who make the schedule to stay on top of their game. The art of scheduling is something you must learn, and once you grasp is you can do many things to your benefit.
Scheduling different unions can be difficult and extremely time consuming. Directors and other production team members also get frustrated when you have to communicate the schedule constraints to them. As much as it might be ideal I think it is unlikely we will be able to standardize the breaks in each Union. Many of these rules have developed because of the specific needs of each Union. Therefore we are talking about asking Unions to change their rules based on the needs of others and not the needs of their own members. It's a nice thought but I'm not going to hold my breath.
It's a bit frustrating that you have all these different unions with different standards, break times, etc. and while it is manageable during before you get into the action theater space, it would be really nice if the unions could standardize practices during the tech process to make things easier for everyone, and allow the most time possible in tech for everything to get adjusted and get done. It's unfortunate that the unions most likely won't be able to get together and make this adjustment, because it would benefit the process of getting a show up as a whole.
I have always assumed this would eventually get itself sorted out. I understand the needs of different people involved with the production can vary widely. Break schedules and work caps were not entirely arbitrary decisions. But as this article points out, the overlapping rules and regs jam up quickly. Perhaps some sort of panel of all the unions could come together and come up with some standards for when all of these guys are doing the same work under one roof. Keeping up with on or two unions is not so hard, but when you get everyone in the pot, it's suddenly not so easy.
I think to some extent this does get sorted out, it just takes some really good scheduling. And, undoubtedly, more standard union regulations would make this easier. However, I think the biggest roadblock preventing union revamping is that it's taken so long already to get to the point where we understand how much "1 hour of work" is for a given person, and how much money they should be making for that hour. Standardizing risks not paying people what they are really due if not done very carefully.
I don't think that this issue is as dire as the author makes it out to be, but I totally agree with the article's overall point. Being able to work sam or similar hours would increase productivity immensely, and I can't see much of a downside. The union laws regarding each artists' specific work hours should remain catered for each artists' needs. (The type of work actors do is totally different from say, a rigging technician, and obviously they need different kinds of breaks and periods of work.) However, finding some sort of common ground for tech week would make everything easier on everyone. I'm not at all familiar with the specifics of union rules, but I'm sure some sort of all-encompassing compromise could be met.
Scheduling in general is a nightmare and working with different unions makes it even harder. But is there really a way to fix this? The article made a good point about how we all lead different lives depending on what job we do. So I don't know how possible it really is. It is frustrating though if one union's rules is more unfair than another's. But the union is looking out for our best interest. They wouldn't screw us over on purpose.
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