- Theatre and money make pretty ugly bedfellows.
(Originally published on Theatrehead.com)
Back in the old days when I was fresh out of school, I hadn�t scored my dream day-job yet, so I was working temp to get some money for food and headshots. I got assigned to a factory in the western suburbs and when I pulled into the parking lot I noticed the picketers. Luckily it was the third shift and the few picketers that were left were too tired to throw anything at me. But I still felt like a heel. I had never been a scab before and if I didn�t need the money I would have just turned around. I rationalized the situation by telling myself that I wasn�t told ahead of time. Still, to this day, the faces of those tired few stick with me and I hope to God they got what they wanted, because if they didn�t, then I was partially responsible. They looked like many of the people I�ve worked with in factories, people with few options, limited education and families to support. Union solidarity is the only way to protect the rights of workers like them. I�m all for unions. I love unions.
So here�s why I think the actors� union struggle in Minnesota is a crock.
First of all, I fully believe we should support the strike. The strike is very important for people who wish to make a living as actors. These people live in LA and New York. This is Minnesota. This is where they keep the cows. This is where people go fishing. Minneapolis is not the city that never sleeps. This is the city that sleeps a full ten hours and takes naps on the weekends. Bar time is midnight for God�s sake, even Wisconsin isn�t that backward. I understand that we have to support the strike here as a show of solidarity, but what happens in Minnesota is never really going to affect the real market on the coasts. The actors out there who are actually trying to make a living do need our support, but nobody living here in town should get their feathers ruffled if their non-union peers are taking their gigs, because anybody who is serious about making a living as an actor should not be trying to do it in Minnesota in the first place.
I should step back a bit here, now that you�re completely pissed off, and clarify that I�m not talking about theater. Theater is an art and it should be available everywhere. Artists in theatre should be able to produce their art everywhere and I�m fully in support of actors in theater making a living wage in Minneapolis or Des Moines or wherever they happen to be (although, if you want to get hired at the Guthrie, it�s helpful to live in New York or LA). But I�m not talking about art, I�m talking about commercials and voice-overs. These have nothing to do with art. These are jobs that are given to people with the right bounce in their hair, the right curve of the lips or the voice that sounds like the producer�s crush in high school who wouldn�t give him the time of day. These jobs are cast by people who say things like, "Well I liked her, but I need somebody with her hair pulled back in a bun, can I see someone like that?" They have about as much imagination as a rock with a suit on.
So what�s the big deal? If you�re a theater actor in Minnesota and want to make a go at it, supplement your income with the quaint little commercial market here (once the strike�s over, of course). If you want to make a living as an actor in commercials, film and TV, move to a real market. If you don�t want to move but just can�t make a living as a corporate schill, there�s still plenty of factory work in the western suburbs.
-E.A.P