www.broadwaynews.com: On Jan. 20, the Broadway League and the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds (COBUG) will come together to celebrate the 16th annual Broadway Salutes. The annual event honors workers in every single department, venue and office tied to Broadway, who have worked in the industry for more than 25 years, acknowledging individuals at the 25-year mark, 35-year mark, and 50-plus mark.
3 comments:
I’m really happy that we’re honoring and recognizing people who have dedicated their careers, especially behind the scenes, to the work and art of theater. And, I’m especially happy that we’re honoring on-stage performers and designers and technicians all at once. It always bothered me that the design awards at the Tonys were an hour before the actual Tonys, and most people don’t even know design awards exist. I always wished that they would weave the big design awards into the acting and overall awards and better integrate the design/tech side of Broadway with the performance side. It’s so important that all theater artists work together, and I would say its incredibly important for designers to have actors they admire and for actors to have designers they admire. We know that thinking about acting when designing is essential, but thinking about design when acting is valuable as well. In my opinion, elebrating the entire industry together is an important step in valuing the solidarity of our industry.
To echo Sid’s sentiment in the comment, I think it is amazing that the Broadway salutes exist! I had never heard of them, and am realizing that I may have already missed them, but I hope to watch them in the future. I remember my theater saying something along the lines of “choosing a career behind the scenes means you stay out of the spotlight.” I wonder how many crew-focused artists would echo this sentiment, and if this informs the general reaction to the Broadway Salutes. This article paints them very positively, which I assume is to garner attention and viewership. I think in some ways it might be beneficial that the salutes are not main-stream, as mostly only those behind the scenes would watch them. Or, could this be a further extension of the dynamic between those on and off stage. I would be interested to ask attendees the impact these salutes have had on them.
I was really happy to find this article. Sometimes I feel like the designers, technicians, run crew, stage managers, etc. don’t get a lot of recognition. Of course they won’t get a lot of publicity like an actor would, that I don’t expect at all. But I rarely see behind-the-scenes videos on instagram from different shows, which I think a lot of people like to see. I just learned last year that the design awards at the Tony Awards are never a part of the main broadcast, which would be the perfect opportunity to recognize the hard work of designers, so hopefully one day that could be fixed. When reading this, it was nice to see people wanting to contribute and show respect to the backstage workers. Without them, many shows on Broadway today would not be possible, especially those who have worked on Broadway for a very long time.
Post a Comment