Friday, November 16, 2018
Broadway Stands with Actors' Equity in Fight to Raise Minimum Salary for Developmental Labs
www.broadwayworld.com: Over a decade ago, an agreement was made between the Broadway League and Actors' Equity Association, which cemented a weekly minimum wage for actors participating in developmental labs. Negotiations began yesterday between the two organizations for an update to those policies, and Actors' Equity is trying to get the word out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
This article raises a lot of interesting points about the current lab process. The biggest issue the actors have is that they want an increase in pay since the scope of a lab has changed. I agree that the scope of a lab has changed and you are basically doing a small version of the show. However, I don’t think an increase in pay is necessarily that right way to go about this. I think a good solution is to put more restrictions on what you can do in a lab and not increase salary as it will become harder and harder for a show to recoup its investment. I think if you limit the scope of the project you will cause less stress on the actors and are still able to afford doing these types of labs. I think that producers will eventually give in and make a new agreement with equity and the pay will rise.
I’ve been hearing a lot about this push for a new agreement in regards to Developmental Labs. It’s only reasonable given how long it’s been since this deal was renegotiated. Especially given how wages have stagnated despite the increased cost of living. The fact that major Broadway actors are throwing their support behind this effort is not surprising. A union is only strong if people stay united. And theatre people have always been pretty good at that. But what’s really surprising to me about this situation is how Equity is going after general public opinion so aggressively. In the past, agreement disputes like this are often kept a little hush-hush, or at the least the campaign for the public eye is not so aggressive. But I’ve seen several posts from AEA on social media tagging the Broadway League and calling them out. It’s a really aggressive strategy, but could yield a high reward.
I am really excited that this is something we are seeing more of. In this time when people are questioning unions and are trying to disenfranchise them they have to stand up for each other. This is one of the things I love so much about the Time's Up Movement. Though not a union it is an organization with artistic leaders and they have taken their loud voices and reach and given them to hotel workers and restaurant workers and other people whose voices may not be able to reach as far. The vast majority of us would benefit from unions and we all have to start standing up not just for our own and when we are in danger but when any union is in jeopardy.
This is a tough conversation that I believe requires a delicate balance. With developmental labs becoming so increasingly popular I agree that this is a necessary conversation for the industry to be having. I think that as some of my classmates have pointed out that the scope of these projects is a major issue. However I disagree that limiting th scope is the proper approach. As shows be some so much more technologically adavaced or complicated (see King Kong, beatle juice and sponge bob) the scope is required. It would not be beneficial to the process to require them to scale back when that’s not the intent of the show in the end. Scaling back may work in many instances but in those when it won’t a higher pay is going to be necessary. Finding a way to support both worlds and sizes of projects with the lab contract will be important and determine how the world of Broadway progresses over the next decade.
Post a Comment