Rock and a Hard Place 3: What Actors Want
Dunkirk NY – I suppose it’s disingenuous of me to write about “what actors want.” Perhaps this will more accurately be a reflection of what I want to see for actors in this country, based upon the reasons I became an actor and the reasons I chose to leave the profession as a full-time option for myself. But in reading all the back-and-forth between Mike Daisey, Todd Olson and Thomas Garvey concerning the plight of actors in regional theatre today, the most obvious element that is missing is from the discussion is that no one is asking actual actors how they feel about their current situation and what they might want.
Actors in theatre today are a collection of people without a true voice. Actors’ Equity is not a legitimate voice for actors, because it is nothing but a labor union built to negotiate working conditions for its members only. That is its only concern; if you are an actor who is not a member, AEA has nothing for you. There really isn’t any other national organization which has the welfare of all actors – union and non-union alike – as its concern. So I think that, when one comes to talking about what actors want, I think it’s first and foremost important to talk about what people want in general, because actors are, first and foremost, people. Continue Reading »
