Re: RAT union panel discussion

[DennisLMo@aol.com]

alot of equity actors get screwed in philly due to the present rules, 
(sometimes it takes a while for this to click in however.) outside of LA and 
NY and perhaps Chicago there is no showcase agreement with equity. which 
means you either get payed scale or do not work (though many eventually scab 
or do money give backs to do some shows). many actors in philly do whatever 
they can to get the legitimization of equity so they can go up to ny or 
wherever and audition, also there are the potential benefits of health 
insurance. but usually this is a canard. since the ny auditions are almost 
all cattle calls without much work happening. in philly of course the actual 
equity opportunities are pretty restricted and very competitive and how many 
time do you see shows at least half cast from outside the city? 

as far as the health insurance and pension benefits you must work 10 weeks 
(or is it more) in a year to get them. many, many actors struggle to make the 
minimum. 

with the economics of theater today it is rough to break even (or not even 
loose not too much in other words not take a bathh) when you're paying equity 
scale. especially when you want to work large (let's say more then six actors 
rehearsed for six weeks.) it's just a fact of life in the theater. 

then let's also talk about what scale is and how often even a key philly 
equity actor makes it. frequently we're talking about $275 a week, or a 
little more, in salary. gee where do you work to get that in the world at 
large and would that be considered anything but a cruel (non)subsistance 
salary in any other profession? let's see, if you work 20 weeks (and how many 
philly equity actors do?) that's a yearly salary of $5500. even in the 
sixties you would have been hard pressed to do anything with that.

so we're all in this together folks, right. actors turn equity and think 
they've got it made or made a step up and quess what a year and a half later 
they're changing their name and doing dinner theater or putting in more time 
in their survival job and... dealing with the discouragement of not having 
work while they are not really free to develop new work with this or that 
interesting smaller theater. and the smaller theaters get hosed by the bills 
that are very hard to pay.

the showcase arrangement allows equity actors to work for no pay when 
developing new work. how many actors do that in ny. well, let's see. when we 
do a showcase in ny and put an add for actors in Backstage we typically get 
400 head shots. there's a different mind set there. actors work for exposure 
and excitement for a given project. the showcase agreement allows actors the 
opportunity to work on what is excting to them and potentially useful for 
their careers. they can do this above board without a lot of hocus pocus and 
fear that their own union will call them in. the showcase agreement is 
extremely useful for dedicated actors wishing to explore their chosen 
artform. it also frequently gets them work down the road. because if you are 
not working how will you invite agents down to see what you can do. and how 
will you interest anyone in hiring you elsewhere without a resume of work and 
reviews and place to show what you can accomplish for real on stage in front 
of the public.

to me it seems the showcase agreement can be extremely beneficial for all 
concerned.

so why is this situation only extended to the big(gest) cities? 

could it be that presently philly is hampered big time in the development of 
new work by the lack of a showcase agreement? wouldn't a showcase agreement 
allow philly to further climb up and be the vital, intense, breader of 
original, meaningful theater, we all have a passion for.

dennis