AMERICAN THEATRE: When Sarala Pool was in college, she dreamed of working Off-Broadway. She wanted to harness her skills to make magic happen onstage at places like the Public Theater. Her dream came true as assistant prop manager on Suffs in 2022, but the job, like all Off-Broadway gigs, was short-lived. She left it scrambling for another job with health insurance as coverage from her parents’s insurance expired.
3 comments:
It’s well known across our industry that unions are incredibly important. The strikes and contract negotiations that made headlines across the country recently have shown just how strong the unions are in theater, at least in the more well known, high level areas. However, I had no idea that so many well known off-Broadway theaters were still not completely unionized. I also had no idea that so many theaters were actively fighting unionization. It’s very easy to be holed up in academia and believe that the unions are completely in control and everyone is protected. However, this viewpoint completely overlooks the significant number of people who are still working for theaters that are not just unprotected by a union but also have working conditions that are very unsafe. I am hopeful that as support for the unions grows and becomes more publicized, more theaters join the union and support their workers through this process.
I don't fully understand the politics behind unions in theater. While I do know of IATSE and other unions and how they can help workers, I am not entirely sure of the entire depth and weight behind it. I think that being able to come together as a group and work together for better job conditions and rights is incredibly important and should never be overlooked. Many companies and theaters often have problems with mistreating their employees whether that be unknowingly, or with full intention of harming them. I think that the fact we can see remarkable efforts from people all over in the theater industry trying to help one another is incredible. I sometimes contemplate the thought of joining a union in the future but I am unsure of the full weight of it so I think I need to learn more about them before I can truly consider it.
This article is so important. The quote that struck me the hardest was “if you wanted healthcare, if you wanted benefits, you could’ve gone into business”. It is very similar if you wanted to make money you should have chosen another career path. Those two statements frustrated me for so many reasons. It implies that because people are doing a career that is not traditional it means they do not deserve to make a good wage and have things like health insurance. It also implies that if you want to do something you are passionate about, it means giving up things as essential and important as a good wage and healthcare. I often think about situations like suffs where the show starts off broadway with non union positions and then moves to broadway. It seems like all the people that were not union working on the original show loose all credit. I wonder why not take those people to Broadway and let them continue their work and I understand it is more complicated than that but it just gets me thinking about unions and their benefits and how the industry is run.
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