a poor player

Recently in Buffalo there was an agreement made between Actors’ Equity and Studio Arena Theatre which resulted in two local non-union theatre companies “presenting” their shows in the Studio Arena space as part of Studio Arena’s subscription series, using non-union actors on a one-shot AEA contract at the LORT D level rather than Studio’s LORT B scale. The whole situation was quite stunning both in its conception and resolution. To gain a background, you can read this, then this, then this. Below is an article I wrote which I intended as a letter to the editor of ArtVoice, but then decided simply to post it here.

*****

The recent dust-up between Studio Theatre and Actors’ Equity Association is symptomatic not only of what’s wrong with Buffalo theatre, but what’s wrong with American theatre in general. As someone who has worked as a union and (mostly) non-union actor in this city since 1989, the agreement reached between these two parties, far from being “revolutionary” or “out of the box” thinking, appears to be nothing but a short-term fix for a troubled theatre that has seldom, in the time I have been here, shown one iota of respect for the local theatre community, especially for local actors.
It’s time that everyone in this controversy understand and acknowledge one very important fact. If Buffalo theatre is truly the asset everyone claims it is to the health and vitality of the city, the primary reason for that is because of the dedication and sacrifices made by the talented local acting community. With only one or two possible exceptions that I can think of, not one single actor in the city makes his or her living solely on the money they earn performing on Buffalo’s stages. The overwhelming majority of us have some other part-time or full-time job or career (or a supportive partner) which pays our bills. For very little money, we give up our free time, time with our families, time with our significant others, and time from our jobs to produce the quality and amount of theatre we have in this city.
The sad reality is that Studio Arena, as the flagship professional theatre in the city, has chosen over the years to treat this hard-working and dedicated group of actors with disdain. Studio Arena is not the only regional LORT theatre to have taken this attitude. When the regional theatre movement started in this country in the late 70s, the original idea behind the movement was to develop theatres which would have their roots within the region, develop local talent, and produce the finest in American drama. AEA itself tried to help make this happen when it began to de-centralize its own structure and develop contracts for the various regions of the country. Before long, however, most every regional theatre abandoned the idea of developing local talent in favor of importing “name” actors with Broadway, off-Broadway, television or film credits. As local theatre companies then began to build their own venues, the LORT theatres generally dismissed them as being of inferior quality, refusing for the most part to collaborate in any meaningful way. The dream of creating a theatre movement rooted in the culture and talent of its region soon faded away, replaced by the rush to bring in the latest Broadway hit populated with New York actors.
Under previous artistic directors David Frank and Gavin Cameron-Webb, Studio Arena Theatre cultivated this attitude at every level of its operation by promoting a certain “snob appeal” within the theatre and among its patrons, and giving a certain noblesse oblige nod to local actors by handing out one or two Equity contracts to hand-picked local favorites or lending the occasional costume, set piece or prop to a local theatre. If there is anything radical about current AD Kathleen Gaffney’s approach to this situation, it is that she has chosen to demonstrate her disdain for the local actors in a radical way: by trying to use local non-union talent as a way to cut her expenses, save her theatre’s financial bacon, and drive a wedge between the theatre and its local union talent, while doing it in a unilateral fashion. The current situation at Studio Arena is in no way the result of any actions on the part of the local theatre community, and should not be the local community’s responsibility to fix under the thin guise of “collaboration.” Using the local talent in this way is both disgraceful and consummately unprofessional.
That Musicalfare, Road Less Traveled Productions, and the casts of Bat Boy and To Kill A Mockingbird have aided and abetted this situation is indicative of the depth of the problem. Despite the fact that both these companies have venues of their own, they jumped at the chance to appear on Studio Arena’s stage and gain the exposure, probably without investigating whether Ms. Gaffney was telling them the truth or not (she wasn’t; or to put it more gently, she gave them her interpretation of the LORT contract, which proved to be inaccurate). It’s hard to blame them. RLTP is a new start-up company with a very entrepreneurial and talented artistic director who looks for unique ways to promote his new company and raise money. Musicalfare is a solid company producing quality musical theatre, but plays in the small and out-of-the-way theatre in Daemen College, and would no doubt love the opportunity to strut its stuff in a 600-seat downtown house in the hopes of drawing more patrons to Amherst. The 16 actors in the cast getting the one-time AEA contracts of $544/week (as compared to the Buffalo/Rochester AEA Agreement minimum of $384/week), as well as the opportunity to appear on Studio’s stage and join Equity (if they can pony up the $1,100 initiation fee) must think they have died and gone to heaven. All these decisions are the result of having been starved out for so many years by Studio in the first place. When you’ve been wandering in the theatrical desert for so long and you finally come upon an oasis, you no doubt drink the water first before asking if it’s poisoned.
And what about Actors’ Equity’s role in this drama? Due to my current performance commitment I was unable to attend the two meetings held to discuss the issue, so I can only comment on what I see from the agreement as it was released. Equity is notorious for its ability to simultaneously help and hinder its members, and its cave-in to Studio Arena is a perfect example of its ability to cut off its nose to spite its face. In one fell swoop it humiliates its local members working for the Buffalo/Rochester minimum by granting 16 currently non-union actors the opportunity to make $160 more a week than the B/R minimum, while showing its negotiating weakness by agreeing to lower Studio’s LORT contract to a D status. The agreement also demonstrates that Equity has no understanding of the fact that Studio Arena seldom hires local talent at all, and by caving in to Studio’s demands, it is not in any way serving the local union acting community by “rescuing” the LORT theatre; in fact, it has done the exact opposite with this agreement by helping the local non-union acting talent moreso than its current members. It also has enriched itself in brazenly allowing the current non-union casts to remain in the show, work with AEA contracts and offer them membership, without opening up the opportunity for current local AEA members to legitimately have a shot at auditioning for either show.
Is Studio Arena worth saving? Yes, but not in this manner. Better models do exist, most notably in Milwaukee, a city with demographics similar to Buffalo, where AD Joseph Hanreddy has spent over 15 years creating and nurturing a strong and supremely talented local ensemble of actors who live and perform in the Milwaukee/Madison area and have deep roots within the community, supplementing them with performers from in and around the city and region. Milwaukee Rep even (gasp!) nurtures and promotes its intern actors to work with them as professionals. If Ms. Gaffney and the Studio Area board are serious about saving their theatre, then the most revolutionary approach is one which gives the local theatre community, and its audience, a genuine and personal stake in its survival. –Tom Loughlin