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Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Actors' Equity Association Partners with Hundreds of Employers to Demand Emergency Supplemental Arts Funding
www.broadwayworld.com: Actors' Equity Association, the national labor union representing more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers in live theatre, has partnered with hundreds of producers across the country to demand billions in emergency funding for arts institutions.
3 comments:
Gabriela Fonseca Luna
said...
One of the industries that has been struck the most by the pandemic this year has been the entertainment industry. Although especially those in live entertainment in general, the article focuses on theater. As a union – and the largest theater union – Actor’s Equity has the size, resources, and authority to demand better conditions for their unemployed members. They are likely to remain unemployed through at least the rest of the year and the first portion of the next, with only some working to a certain capacity. The government however has not been providing them the necessary financial means to keep going. Theaters will continue to close down at larger and larger scales if there were to be no fund, to the point that there will be no theater to come back to after things are able to open again. I can only hope that the letter captures the attention of Congress and they can see the severity of the damage that has been done.
It is a shame that especially within entertainment, live theater has been one of the most affected during this pandemic. However, when thought about, it is quite inevitable. The purpose of live theater is to typically gather groups of people to react (laugh, cry, eat) in tight usually indoor space to performers who are dancing and singing (sweating, spitting). This creates a perfect place to spread airborne diseases such as the pandemic we are currently in. I think that it is a very strong and necessary thing for one of the nation's biggest theater union to do to demand funding from the government. This pandemic has put millions of people who are in debt to schools and programs that prepared them for an industry that is struggling to survive. Millions of entertainers, whether it be actors or designers or anything in between, cannot make a living. I think the statement they sent to congress was very concise, structured using ethos and logos by bringing in data. It is very clear cut and to the point and I have high hopes in their response. However, I believe that it is time for many of these entertainers to start looking for other job options. In this climate, it is just not viable to make a living off of what the government is giving you just because there is a pandemic. There are so many more families that are struggling, and the government also could be using money to fund research to find a vaccine. It is just a smart thing to do, rather than holding out finding a regular job just because someone thinks their talent shouldn't be wasted.
If the government can bail out big banks that screwed over the American people, then then they can pass this $9 m bill to save the entertainment industry. It’s no wonder that the entertainment industry was one of the worst hit during the pandemic, especially live theater. This industry was one of the first to close and the last to start reopening. Even though entertainment isn’t considered “essential”, there are still millions of workers unemployed and local economies that depend on theater, like New York. A lot of these workers are 1099 workers who work with uncertainty in their employment because they want to provide entertainment to others and I hope the government sees the value in their work and passes the bill for 9 billion dollars to replaces the loses of local theaters. Because if they don’t, and they see this industry as undeserving of federal stimulus than the economy won’t fully recover, let alone the individual theaters.
3 comments:
One of the industries that has been struck the most by the pandemic this year has been the entertainment industry. Although especially those in live entertainment in general, the article focuses on theater. As a union – and the largest theater union – Actor’s Equity has the size, resources, and authority to demand better conditions for their unemployed members. They are likely to remain unemployed through at least the rest of the year and the first portion of the next, with only some working to a certain capacity. The government however has not been providing them the necessary financial means to keep going. Theaters will continue to close down at larger and larger scales if there were to be no fund, to the point that there will be no theater to come back to after things are able to open again. I can only hope that the letter captures the attention of Congress and they can see the severity of the damage that has been done.
It is a shame that especially within entertainment, live theater has been one of the most affected during this pandemic. However, when thought about, it is quite inevitable. The purpose of live theater is to typically gather groups of people to react (laugh, cry, eat) in tight usually indoor space to performers who are dancing and singing (sweating, spitting). This creates a perfect place to spread airborne diseases such as the pandemic we are currently in. I think that it is a very strong and necessary thing for one of the nation's biggest theater union to do to demand funding from the government. This pandemic has put millions of people who are in debt to schools and programs that prepared them for an industry that is struggling to survive. Millions of entertainers, whether it be actors or designers or anything in between, cannot make a living. I think the statement they sent to congress was very concise, structured using ethos and logos by bringing in data. It is very clear cut and to the point and I have high hopes in their response. However, I believe that it is time for many of these entertainers to start looking for other job options. In this climate, it is just not viable to make a living off of what the government is giving you just because there is a pandemic. There are so many more families that are struggling, and the government also could be using money to fund research to find a vaccine. It is just a smart thing to do, rather than holding out finding a regular job just because someone thinks their talent shouldn't be wasted.
If the government can bail out big banks that screwed over the American people, then then they can pass this $9 m bill to save the entertainment industry. It’s no wonder that the entertainment industry was one of the worst hit during the pandemic, especially live theater. This industry was one of the first to close and the last to start reopening. Even though entertainment isn’t considered “essential”, there are still millions of workers unemployed and local economies that depend on theater, like New York. A lot of these workers are 1099 workers who work with uncertainty in their employment because they want to provide entertainment to others and I hope the government sees the value in their work and passes the bill for 9 billion dollars to replaces the loses of local theaters. Because if they don’t, and they see this industry as undeserving of federal stimulus than the economy won’t fully recover, let alone the individual theaters.
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