backstage.com: Staying financially solvent while studying acting can be a challenge for many, but students of the Theatre Program at Columbia University’s School of the Arts and the Classic Stage Company (CSC) will benefit from a new agreement recently struck between the school and the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA). According to the deal, third-year MFA acting students will be eligible to join the AEA. Additionally, each year two MFA students in stage management will also be able to join.
4 comments:
This is an amazing opportunity that I fully support. I hope that AEA can strike deals with more schools in this manner. As someone who's interested in stage management, if I could graduate college and already have an opportunity to do class work combined with getting equity status I'd be overjoyed. One of the hallmarks of stability and making it in the industry is to join unions, and AEA is essentially the premier union to join. I'd really like to see this opportunity expanded because getting into AEA is something that I've known I wanted to do since I was a sophomore in high school, and the convenience to start that process while earning college credit is truly amazing. Sadly, it seems to be very limited for stage managers at Columbia (Two MFA students). I can see this selection of only two stage managers causing quite a weird set of competition between the managers who are studying there.
While I think this Equity membership program is probably great for some of these students, I wonder if others won't get hurt by it. I have had many people warn me not to go union right away upon graduating. For both stage managers and actors, making the jump to Equity too soon can sometimes be costly. It is hard even for union members to get work when they are first entering the profession, and being a union member can mean being ineligible to apply for many paid, smaller professional gigs. This considered, though, it is great that Columbia's students wil be given the option to join or not to join. I hope that the school will help each student to make a personalized, educated decision on the matter, though, instead of making them all feel obligated to join the union right away.
i dont think it's wise idea to jump into an union right after graduation. it will cost you too much and actually do nothing for us. i mean, considering what an union do for you, the most important thing is negociation with your producer. I think no one wants to have a fight with their boss particularly they are total fresh in a field, not to mention they are fight with their through a more powerful organization, which just maked their boss more uncomfortable.
I'm really gonna come down on the "Giving Union Membership to Graduates is a bad idea" side of the fence. While giving students the opportunity to gain downtown Manhattan exposure and giving them a fast-track into the union, there are several issues. (1) As Shannon put it, being in the union too quickly may limit both actors and stage managers to only taking union jobs. They may get better training and possibly more steady employment from non-union, which would be off-limits. (2) Joining Equity is expensive - a $1200 investment. This production is not paying the students, so that's an extra chunk of change to drop simply to be in the show. What are they going to do if they refuse, drop out of the show? This seems like a ploy for Equity to gain more new members on a steady stream. (3) Equity is a mark of being ready to compete as a theatre professional. As an Equity SM, for example, you're going to submit to the same jobs as 40-50 year old stage managers with a LOT more experience than you have, and are expected to be the same caliber if you want to work. Some students may not be ready for that, and would value the non-union experiences to get their feet wet.
For students who do wish to join Equity, I would encourage them to audition for jobs that either will immediately bring them into the union or to join the Equity Membership Candidate program and build up apprenticeship weeks to get the experience they need to compete in the union space.
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