Saturday, February 28, 2015
Who Benefits from the 99-Seat Plan?
Parabasis: Last week, my old friend and editor Rob Weinert-Kendt asked me to be a guest on TCG's "Offstage" podcast to talk about the upcoming fight over LA's 99-seat plan. You can listen to the full episode here. The episode uses as a jumping off point Rob's excellent meditation contrasting the abundance of riches of 99-seat plan theater in LA with the knowledge that the system isn't sustainable in its current form, as it relies on grossly underpaying union labor.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I don't know if this would actually be a benefit to those in need. I feel that if you're in a regional theatre, you do need to stand out in someway to get their income. However, is this getting the government more money or the people that actually need it. It seems like this is an attempt to what could be a benefit to those who aren't earning enough money. And I hope that this is true because I hate how this world decided to make it seem like they're on your side when they are greedy and just want their money. I personally don't trust this plan. I feel like they aren't informing them enough of what they need to know. So they understand what they are actually getting out of this plan. I think companies should think about "how can we bring you up to make us look better?" instead of "how can we take your money so we can be rich?".
Upon coming across this issue for the first time, I was too concerned with the theaters that were putting on these shows. Right off the bat, the author makes it very clear that if you are participating in this discussion, that you are actually educated on the topic. You know, we can call the kettle black all we want, but we might not know how it got that way. Kudos to the author for doing that. As for the actual issue, I don't agree with what it's portraying. The end of the article talks about how we as a society don't value actors, and this 99-seat plan is doing just that. Showcase rules have been put in place. If you were to run a showcase 8 shows a week under the 99-seat rule, the actor would make $200 a week. That's $800 a month or $9600 a year. That's nothing. One thing is clear though- if you're making more than $200,000 a year on showcase income, you should graduate to a small contract. That's for certain.
Post a Comment