Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Theatre artists: a liveable wage is our right and our responsibility
DC Theatre Scene: In her interview, “The Untenable Career of a Successful Philadelphia Theater Artist”, she candidly laid out the economic pitfalls of being a working artist: relying on grants or sponsors for funding, putting in 60+ hour weeks for scant pay, working tirelessly on increasingly successful projects only to struggle, still, with filling the calendar with work to pay rent. She felt that between the funders rejecting her grant requests for “doing it wrong” and an increasingly expensive environment, there was just no benefit to remaining a full-time artist.
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2 comments:
This is an issue that all of us as artists face and know about, but the angle that Andrew takes, showing how what one designer does in terms of how they are paid has the potential to affect the rest of the designer positions for a production is one that a lot of people. including myself, probably have not thought about. currently, if I wanted to, I would have the luxury of being able to take a job for less than I deserve for whatever reason because I still have a cushion in my parents. But as I go further into my career this would be something that will end, and even now if I were to theoretically devalue my work for a show I would not have previously realized the consequences for the other artists on the production, particularly those who don't have the same cushion that I do. This is something that I think a lot of us, including myself should take to heart, and truly realize that what we do as artists has a significant value, and we cannot allow ourselves or others to decide that that is not the case.
Making a livable wage in the theater industry is something that I have been thinking a lot about recently. Personally, my parents were very skeptical when I first told them that I wanted to go into the theater business. In fact, in my time at Pre-College, my father made a comment about how I probably shouldn’t go to a conservatory program because the “ability for me to major is something that will make you money” is not there. It is the lack of funding for artist that is making it difficult to attract people to that job. As the article was saying, it is difficult to argue for a higher pay on a job. You do not want to come off as thinking that your work is better than it is, but at the same time, when it is better than the pay is, people will pay you less for your work. This is why there is an importance for unions, especially for theater designers. Without unions, designers would get paid at a barley livable wage for doing outstanding work. Money is a touchy subject always, but one really need to be started so that artist will make livable wages and the would will continue to have beautiful art.
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