Now that I got my ballot in the mail, I think it’s time to
enter the fray of the Waiver Wars.
In the debates and discussions I’ve seen, I haven’t found
many that lay out the math of the proposed changes. (Thanks to the inimitable Rob Nagle for making me aware of Jeff
Marlow’s excellent example.)
So, here’s my attempt to lay out the financial impact of
Actor's Equity Association's (AEA's) proposed changes on the per-cast-member
cost of producing a play at a 99-seat-or-fewer venue with a ticket price of
$25 or higher. I like evaluating on a per-cast-member basis because this allows
AEA members to think personally about how this amount of money compares to
how much they value having 99-seat theater, as it is now, as a creative outlet. In some ways, this is the specific
question at hand for each voting member.
For the math below, we’ll assume you’ll rehearse each
actor in your show for 36 hours per week over 4 weeks, inclusive of tech and
dress rehearsals; that you’ll perform your show Thursday – Sunday nights for a
5-week run; and that each performance night will need 3 hours of each actors’
time, inclusive of arriving at the theatre 30 minutes before curtain.
This works out as follows.
Existing Code
Rehearsal fees paid each actor $0
Performance fees paid each actor $236
Total paid each actor in the show $236
Math: actors will earn
($11 per show x 4 shows per week x 4 weeks) + ($15 per show x 4 shows x 1
week), reflecting that actors’ fees go from $11 per show to $15 per show after 4 weeks.
Proposed New Code
Under today’s California minimum of wage $9 per hour, costs
would be:
Rehearsal fees paid each actor $1,296
Performance fees paid each actor $540
Total paid each actor in the show $1,836
As of January 1, 2016, California minimum wage will
increase to $10 per hour, meaning:
Rehearsal fees paid each actor $1,440
Performance fees paid each actor $600
Total paid each actor in the show $2,040
Math: Actors will
earn ($9 per hour x 36 hours per week x 4 weeks of rehearsal) + ($9 per hour x 3 hours per night of performance x 4 shows per
week x 5 week of the run). As of 1/1/16, the $9 will increase to $10 in the
formula.
Thus, we arrive at a minimum
increase in production costs of $1,600 per
actor in a play produced prior to 1/1/16 and of $1,804 per actor after 1/1/16. (Many have rightly pointed out that the
details emerging so far do not help us clarify if additional costs – like
pension and health contributions, payroll taxes, and the like – will also be
required, increasing this cost burden. Jeff Marlow does a good job of factoring
them in to his fictional production, but I like looking at the most
conservative cost increase, so we know our what our least likely impact is, giving AEA the benefit of the doubt.)
However you decide where you stand
on this issue, use real dollar amounts as you think it through.
Now...
Personally, I’m opposed to the proposed changes. That
said, I have found some rhetoric on the Vote No side extreme, especially when
very wealthy people claim that theaters they support would not exist under the
proposed new rules. We can see, above, that the costs are not so high that they literally close the
doors of our most well-supported theaters. Certainly, some passionate
supporters can float costs of this level.
Just as certainly, however, costs of this level would, indeed, force
many beloved theaters to close and
would force all LA theaters to do what
too-many theaters in other cities must: avoid shows with large casts, avoid
being able to include companies of actors in their aesthetic, and cut rehearsal
time (limiting the adventurousness of what can be attempted). All of this would
mean a significant loss of cultural value for Los Angeles, while only
ensuring that a small number of people would earn wages that would still fail to provide a truly “professional”
standard of living (to use the buzzword AEA repeatedly cites).
And, most importantly for my opposition to the proposed
changes:
Evidence
has shown me that it is actors ourselves who are producing this work, and I do
not see how our own union can justify wanting to stop us from doing what we
want to do. Quite the opposite, as any reader will know, I consider being an entrepreneurial
artist a high calling, so I’d like to see our union find ways to support our ability to self-produce. (If
AEA wants to stop all the 99-seat producers they claim are making money off our
labor in LA, they are welcome to. I can point to perhaps one such person, but
no more than that.)
and
I
think it’s a very bad political move for a union to make rules it is incapable
of enforcing, because doing so publicly emphasizes that union’s limitations. I do not
see how AEA can stop a group of willing volunteers from volunteering, and
the fact that the proposed new rules will lead to whole groups of member actors
simply side-stepping AEA authority will be devastating for its future
ability to forcefully negotiate with producers who are making real money in commercial theatre.
Guess I’ll mail that ballot now.