“The big change people are discovering within the past few years is that we can have boundaries in this work—actors can have boundaries about where they don’t want to be touched—and still tell the story.”
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“After such a difficult time, it’s been more than a relief to see friends posting positive social media updates about their return to the theatre now that we’re beginning to reopen. But for some, the forced COVID career change, though unwelcome, has been a time to reflect on their work in the theatre and to reevaluate what the future holds.”
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“Figure out why you want to hire,” Pace said. “What are you hoping they’ll bring to the table? Do you want someone who will do education or just choreography? Are you looking for a borderline co-director because the show is so intimate? Ask questions tailored to what you need, rather than what you think they should have.”
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“The issue of casting based on personal identity is a complex and nuanced one. But the bottom line is we can’t even begin to have a conversation about those issues until the playing field is significantly evened out.”
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“The final day of the Actors’ Equity Association’s(AEA) first-ever delegate convention featured a protest with many BIPOC delegates leaving the event in protest over the union’s failure to address racist actions that targeted a black delegate which had allowed “white supremacy culture” to create an unsafe space for other BIPOC delegates.”
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“Actors’ Equity has removed a longstanding policy that prevented immigrant performers from working on union productions without a green ard of U.S. citizenship. Actress Jessica Wu spearheaded the change which is being described as ‘momentous’ by many in the community.”
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“Thanks to the activism and hard work of the groups On Our Team and Costume Professionals for Wage Equity, Playbill and BroadwayWorld now require that anyone posting a job must include salary in their announcement.”
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“If serial rape by Harvey Weinstein or alleged longstanding workplace bullying by Rudin aren’t enough for groups to take substantial action to remove these people from positions of power, I’m terrified of where that line in the sand lies.”
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“So much of the job is advocacy for actors, what the actors’ boundaries are, what they’re confident in doing, and then translating. What is the director's vision? Translating that into movement for the actors or translating actor movement or boundaries back to the director.”
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“Even though Broadway isn’t reopening anytime soon, many regional theatres have plans in place to resume performances as early as this summer. However, a potential roadblock to restarting the theatre business could be on the horizon given the updates to the Actor’s Equity Association’s COVID-19 Procedures and Protocols. So much that a petition is now being circulated by members which outlines their frustrations and concerns with union leadership.”
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“From stories of interns going without health insurance for a year to interns who were forced to go into debt in order to maintain their full-time theatre commitments, the issue of pay is a big one. What does it mean when internship positions are only available to those who can afford to take them?”
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“The reality is that the theatre community is facing a huge dichotomy in mindset. Some argue that this is a time to be hyper-vigilant and exist in a state of manic productivity. Then, there is the polar opposite view – that we should be doing nothing. What is the point of producing theatre coldly and impersonally, over a computer screen? What is the logic of preparing for auditions that won’t happen? Neither of these views serve us as artists. In fact, they are destroying us.”
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