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Friday, March 21, 2025
IATSE President Speaks Out Against Canceled Kennedy Center Shows
www.hollywoodreporter.com: IATSE International president Matthew D. Loeb cautioned artists and producers against cancelling shows at the Kennedy Center, citing the impact on wages for behind-the-scenes workers.
6 comments:
Josh Hillers
said...
Well I'm incredibly sympathetic to the notions discussed in the article, particularly that of ensuring that backstage members of I.A.T.S.E. have work and can continue to support themselves, I also think it is important to realize that the proposal of the President of I.A.T.S.E. in part encourages the result that President Trump and the current Administration hopes for with the operation of the Kennedy Center. What I mean by this is that by attempting to encourage performers and productions to continue to operate in the Kennedy Center as normal, this promotes the idea that despite the leadership changes in the Kennedy Center and the shifts from its values as an artistic organization, performers and productions should still be willing to perform there, even if it goes against their own values. Promoting these ideas for the sake of I.A.T.S.E. members is just, yet discouraging performers and productions from doing what they believe is right based on their own values seems out of place.
Reading about the recent cancellations at the Kennedy Center really hit me. t’s easy to focus on the stars—the actors, musicians, and producers—but what about the people backstage? The ones running lights, sewing costumes, doing hair and makeup, building sets? They’re artists too, just behind the curtain. And now, because of political shifts and moral protests, their livelihoods are being put on pause. I get why artists like Issa Rae and the Hamilton team are pulling out. It’s about principle. They don’t want to be associated with what they see as censorship or injustice. But there’s a real tension here between standing up for values and supporting the workers who make these productions possible. As Matthew Loeb from IATSE put it—these are people trying to feed their families. They didn’t choose who runs the Kennedy Center. They’re just showing up, doing the work, and keeping the arts alive.
I've been seeing all the news about the cancellations at the Kennedy center, and it's really unfortunate for the arts. I think when politics get involved and disrupt our ability to make art and express ourselves, it's really unfortunate. It is not surprising to me that people no longer want to to engage with or be affiliated with the Kennedy Center after what has gone on there and I'm sure it is complicated, but I think we also have to consider the effect that this has on communities beyond the politics of it. Choosing not to put on performances because of other factors affects children and audiences that would be engaging, and it affects the jobs of the people who work those shows, both actors and the stagehands behind the scenes. I think that despite everything going on, we have to continue to make the arts prevail and not be silenced.
Obviously the lives of backstage workers and their families deserve to be paid and fed. The real problem isn’t the artists who are canceling shows and performances, the real reason is the power imbalance between Trump and Republicans trying to take command of everything they can get their hands on. Over 97 Executive Orders have been targeting aid programs like the ones that are supporting families who make less than fifty thousand dollars a year. Programs that would be the safety net that the IATSE President should want to keep around for his members. Why is Matthew D. Loeb not supporting artists and productions? In total, only 20 shows have been canceled when the Kennedy Center has over 2000 performances. While these may have been the larger shows that the Union relies on for work for its many members, that is still a small number in the scheme of things.
This is a difficult idea with no right solution, but I find myself disagreeing with the IATSE President. It pains me to think of all of the people put out of work because of those cancellations, but I also don’t disagree with the artists for backing what they believed. I found the quote he said, that they hope the Kennedy Center “can continue to offer the best to the public when it comes to promoting world-class productions, while protecting freedom of speech and expression, free of censorship in the spirit of foundational democratic values”, to be interesting. It feels pretty obvious to me that there has definitely been a change in performances and Kennedy Center-ordered cancellations, that do form enough of a pattern to warrant suspicion. Furthermore, even outside of politics, I don’t enjoy the idea that a president can just step in and take control of an organization like that if they don’t agree with part of the programming. Theatre is meant to challenge us, and I definitely think that creating a nuclear pushback on anything you dislike sets a really dangerous precedent.
When Trump became the Chair at the Keneddy center I knew that shows were going to be canceled but I hadn't really thought about the artists that would lose jobs due to those cancellations. Art is already a very complicated field when it comes to stable employment and canceling planned shows makes it tremendously worse for those artists. Spurt of the moment cancellations do not give artists enough time to audition and book another job so their income suffers greatly. I also find it interesting that when art gets canceled it is almost never to perform better art but because things have gone wrong or someone doesn't agree with the stories being told. Cancellations are inevitable but it's always sad to see someone's hard work get thrown out the window so fast because of one man. Art in general is both gaining traction and actively being censored throughout the media and the Kennedy center might be just the beginning.
6 comments:
Well I'm incredibly sympathetic to the notions discussed in the article, particularly that of ensuring that backstage members of I.A.T.S.E. have work and can continue to support themselves, I also think it is important to realize that the proposal of the President of I.A.T.S.E. in part encourages the result that President Trump and the current Administration hopes for with the operation of the Kennedy Center. What I mean by this is that by attempting to encourage performers and productions to continue to operate in the Kennedy Center as normal, this promotes the idea that despite the leadership changes in the Kennedy Center and the shifts from its values as an artistic organization, performers and productions should still be willing to perform there, even if it goes against their own values. Promoting these ideas for the sake of I.A.T.S.E. members is just, yet discouraging performers and productions from doing what they believe is right based on their own values seems out of place.
Reading about the recent cancellations at the Kennedy Center really hit me. t’s easy to focus on the stars—the actors, musicians, and producers—but what about the people backstage? The ones running lights, sewing costumes, doing hair and makeup, building sets? They’re artists too, just behind the curtain. And now, because of political shifts and moral protests, their livelihoods are being put on pause. I get why artists like Issa Rae and the Hamilton team are pulling out. It’s about principle. They don’t want to be associated with what they see as censorship or injustice. But there’s a real tension here between standing up for values and supporting the workers who make these productions possible. As Matthew Loeb from IATSE put it—these are people trying to feed their families. They didn’t choose who runs the Kennedy Center. They’re just showing up, doing the work, and keeping the arts alive.
I've been seeing all the news about the cancellations at the Kennedy center, and it's really unfortunate for the arts. I think when politics get involved and disrupt our ability to make art and express ourselves, it's really unfortunate. It is not surprising to me that people no longer want to to engage with or be affiliated with the Kennedy Center after what has gone on there and I'm sure it is complicated, but I think we also have to consider the effect that this has on communities beyond the politics of it. Choosing not to put on performances because of other factors affects children and audiences that would be engaging, and it affects the jobs of the people who work those shows, both actors and the stagehands behind the scenes. I think that despite everything going on, we have to continue to make the arts prevail and not be silenced.
Obviously the lives of backstage workers and their families deserve to be paid and fed. The real problem isn’t the artists who are canceling shows and performances, the real reason is the power imbalance between Trump and Republicans trying to take command of everything they can get their hands on. Over 97 Executive Orders have been targeting aid programs like the ones that are supporting families who make less than fifty thousand dollars a year. Programs that would be the safety net that the IATSE President should want to keep around for his members. Why is Matthew D. Loeb not supporting artists and productions? In total, only 20 shows have been canceled when the Kennedy Center has over 2000 performances. While these may have been the larger shows that the Union relies on for work for its many members, that is still a small number in the scheme of things.
This is a difficult idea with no right solution, but I find myself disagreeing with the IATSE President. It pains me to think of all of the people put out of work because of those cancellations, but I also don’t disagree with the artists for backing what they believed. I found the quote he said, that they hope the Kennedy Center “can continue to offer the best to the public when it comes to promoting world-class productions, while protecting freedom of speech and expression, free of censorship in the spirit of foundational democratic values”, to be interesting. It feels pretty obvious to me that there has definitely been a change in performances and Kennedy Center-ordered cancellations, that do form enough of a pattern to warrant suspicion. Furthermore, even outside of politics, I don’t enjoy the idea that a president can just step in and take control of an organization like that if they don’t agree with part of the programming. Theatre is meant to challenge us, and I definitely think that creating a nuclear pushback on anything you dislike sets a really dangerous precedent.
When Trump became the Chair at the Keneddy center I knew that shows were going to be canceled but I hadn't really thought about the artists that would lose jobs due to those cancellations. Art is already a very complicated field when it comes to stable employment and canceling planned shows makes it tremendously worse for those artists. Spurt of the moment cancellations do not give artists enough time to audition and book another job so their income suffers greatly. I also find it interesting that when art gets canceled it is almost never to perform better art but because things have gone wrong or someone doesn't agree with the stories being told. Cancellations are inevitable but it's always sad to see someone's hard work get thrown out the window so fast because of one man. Art in general is both gaining traction and actively being censored throughout the media and the Kennedy center might be just the beginning.
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