So I haven't blogged in a while. Deal with it.
Today's blog is about our core company philosophy of putting our people first. What does it mean? Why do we want to do that? How do we plan on doing it? Who cares about people anyway?
People first. Doesn't that sound pretty? I'd put it on an Occupy sign, for sure. But what does it actually mean? Well, for us it means valuing the people who make theatre over everything else. And on a practical level, it means paying those people for their work before we even think about spending money on anything else (that isn't absolutely essential to our performance). Now would be a good point to mention that I have nothing against theatre companies that spend money on their space/lighting/set/etc. before they pay the actors a stipend. Mainly because of that last bit: they pay the actors a stipend. If I did have a problem with that, I wouldn't be working much. But we want to do things differently.
When I started getting people together for this group, paying the actors was always a priority. And that was because, first and foremost, I'm an actor. I know what it feels like to see an audition posting that offers "No Pay." And I don't mean "Small Stipend" or "Share of Ticket Sales." That's totally fine. Theatres don't have a lot of money. I mean "No Pay." And it feels insulting. I feel insulted when I see that a company is willing to spend money on a space, on lights, on a set of some kind, on all kinds of things, before they are willing to spend a dime on me. And the big problem I have with that is (as discussed way back in a prior blog) that none of these things are necessary for theatre. You don't need a cool stage. You don't need fancy lighting. You don't need a cool set. Don't get me wrong, all those things are gravy. But you can't have a show without actors. Period.
So when I see an audition posting where the company clearly is going to spend money on all of those things but not on the cast, I don't submit. Because it's deeply insulting to me that someone believes I'm not as valuable as a lighting grid. That's why we're paying our actors before we even dream of paying for a rental space. We'll go wherever we can, on the lowest possible budget, and any money we receive from performances is first paid back to the actors.
Because that's how we roll. Or because we're dirty, filthy communists. Probably the second one.
