Opportunity or Exploitation

Two recent rule changes will bring some adjustments to some theatre production considerations. One involves the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, and the other involves theatres employing unionized performers, with emphasis in southern California. They're related in that both are forcing accountability and reality checks for exploitive arts employment.

A European theatre, actor's view.

A major part of ART continuing from its inception under Robert Brustein has been its Institute. Fundamentally, it is an actor-training program. I'm sure students receive some great instruction in their experiences with performers, but the relationship may appear to be exploitive to an outside observer.

The Department of Education has concerns about the debt-to-expected-earnings. Students can become trapped into hefty loan repayment without realistic employment opportunities.

The second complication is a set of new rulings by Actors' Equity Association (AEA), the national union for professional stage actors. In Los Angeles, Equity actors can work for non-scale pay on a performance basis for a non-union, non-commercial theatrical production. But next year the AEA will require actors to be paid for all time spent on set, including rehearsals.

Both of these rulings battle the exploitive aspects of theatre employment for actors. Directors, designers and technicians are in a little stronger bargaining position or have union representation. Actors are more susceptible to exploitation because their employment is more contingent. Equal opportunity employment has little consideration where artistry and skill are in the balance, and very specifically competitive, as in theatre, music, and visual art. Yet, opportunities for under-represented groups to compete on a level field often are constrained and unconsciously limited.

Students in a training program promising employment deserve a reasonable expectation of finding employment. Actors who make a living from their work deserve to be paid for the work required.

All of the art forms use people who are willingly used because their work is fulfilling in some way. And yet it remains their work life and if it has value to us, we should be willing to reward it. Let's quit exploiting people because they love their work. It's not a functioning mantra in the current political climate, but for the health of our civilization, we should endeavor to compensate people for their work for us rather than exploit them.