USITT Webinar Replay « Stage Directions: Lift the Curtain is a group of like-minded individuals looking to end unpaid and underpaid internships by providing information and resources to interns and organizations alike. They’ve come together to address unpaid arts internships.
5 comments:
This is amazing! I'm so happy people are speaking up about this, because unpaid internships always felt unfair, even before I learned its impact on BIPOC looking to get into theater. It really is a form of gatekeeping, and it can be seen in every career, but theater, especially Broadway, is a major culprit. People tell you when you're applying to schools and jobs that internships are massively important, but not everyone has the luxury to sacrifice time that could be spent working in order to pursue their passion. This is a product of capitalism, which, as a system in the United States, is incredibly elitist and discriminatory. By not making room for others, regardless of financial situation, to be involved in theater, stories are left untold. I am convinced that the barriers for youth from low-income families to be exposed to the arts, which is considered unfavorable in capitalism, is the reason the arts are so painfully white.
I'm so glad to see how people are shining a light on this issue. It is definitely bothersome when looking for internships to see that it is unpaid. As a college student, internships are an important part of my education during long breaks like summer or winter, to be able to experience the workforce and learn hands-on. It is also important in discovering what you want to do after graduating. However, when it is unpaid, there is often no choice but to go with a random part-time job in order to afford school and sustain a healthy living during the semester. Also, college students are well educated and have the capability to work and perform well in an internship. We should be compensated for such things, rather than riding off our work with "we are gaining experience". This way, students will be able to have an efficient break, experiencing new things while also being able to save up financially.
I am so glad that there is a group of people working to fight against this. Unpaid internships just pave the way for more artists to start their careers in debt, and make it so much harder to get out of it. Unpaid internships are honestly just exploitation of labor and they should be treated as such. It appalls me that people think this is okay or normal. The tools the panelists are helping to teach are so helpful. I know that when I’m looking for internships, I’ll definitely refer back to this group and use their advice. Advocating for yourself during the interview process is so important and any opportunity to improve upon it shouldn’t be taken for granted. “Lift The Curtains” goal is to stop socioeconomic privilege from being a prerequisite for success in the theatre industry, which is a huge factor currently. The work this organization is doing is profound and I’d love to get involved in the future.
As the other comments on this post have expressed, this orginisation is doing a wonderful thing and honestly it's about time. Unpaid internships have been a not so subtle way of gate keeping for many industries. While companies try to get cheap, or free, help for other staff or on specificities projects they are also keeping a large group of people out of those same positions, simply because they can not afford to go unpaid. In fact many people, especially students as they are most frequently in these roles, end up paying out of their own pocket for the "privilege" of working for the companies who are supposedly helping to build up the interns resumes and make the more hirable. This out of pocket cost for the interns is something that a lot of people do not have the ability to afford because of this people from more privileged backgrounds end up in these unpaid roles and therefore are the more hirable candidates. This inequitable practice needs to stop, especially in the theatre industry. Lift the Curtain is doing very good work and I am so excited to see where their work goes and how they succeed in their goal.
Yes, this is something that needs to be talked about and probably dismantled. It’s a pretty common idea that minimum wage is currently not a living wage. Therefore, any company that argues they could not afford to pay $15 an hour is a failing company. Their business model is predicated on them stealing labor by not paying workers what they deserve, which is enough to live. This is tantamount to a construction money refusing to pay full price for lumber because then they could not afford to build houses. I think a similar thing happened on our own campus last semester. The School of Drama requires a lot of labor from grad students in order to function, but just because it’s necessary doesn’t make it free. It’s a business cost, just like any other, and the school needs to pay grad students for their labor, which now they are. I think the only time an unpaid internship is fair, is when it is centering education. Not that I might learn “real-world experience,” because I can do that in the real world and still get paid, but actually designed as effectively a project-based course with clear learning objectives.
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