You’re nearly thirteen and have gone unattended,
You started so innocently, out of best interest for so many.
You grew without restriction; encouragement is all you knew.
We let someone else raise you and you seemed to be so strong.
Aggrandizement has made you super helpful, because who doesn’t want to be better?Developing bigger, so close to your real potential,
It feels kind of good for us to be together creating a better world, feeling fulfilled.
Let’s have you do this, a little of that, why not that’s what you’re here for… right?
Sorry, right, you deserve better. You can certainly do more, I mean get more.
But don’t worry, we are here for you, now and we are going to lock you away.
If you don’t see the light of day, we can control you and everyone will be happy… right?We’ve got your best interest at heart, what’s your name?
How should we listen, of course that shouldn’t happen. Everyone knows that… right?Who would do this to you, you were created for so much good, time treating you badly.
You should be fine now, I’m confused, what’s your name?
Just recently my union, Actor’s Equity Association (I know, I know what is a stage manager doing in an actor’s union) went on strike against the Broadway League’s use of various developmental projects spurred on by a thirteen year unattended agreement called the LAB agreement. Yes, for thirteen years theatre producers have been using this agreement to develop book, music, choreography & concept. These LAB’s have sometimes grown to be very elaborate, like a six pack and a shove from a full production. From one point of view a producer might say they need to see all of these elements to make sure they are on the right track before they spend 16-20 million dollars to mount a Broadway Musical, I mean that’s a lot of money. Investors and theatre owners may not have the director’s wonderful sense of vision so the producer sort of puts “LAB-vision-glasses” on their faces, fair story! But I return to the “unattended” part, which is the provisions for the AEA members involved in these projects. For thirteen years the union & the League have not re-negotiated the pay or conditions for these LABS and over those thirteen years the membership has grown resentful.
I am a parent, so I tend to look at situations through a parental lens, so keep that in mind as I try to explain. If my son, who is fourteen, had been sent out to live his life and his parameters never changed from the ones I had originally assigned he would grow out of control and follow whoever was willing to pay him attention. So, AEA says we are going to create this LAB contract so all of our dancers who are dancing pre-production for choreographers with no benefits and goodness only knows what kind of money get proper compensation. They loosely outline what these are to be, because remember when it was set up it was to protect a few marginalized performers. In come Producers who say, heck, if we are going to have to pay weekly salaries and benefits to performers and stage managers let’s use the time and money to our advantage. As the shows grew in scale and scope so did the demands on the LAB. Now there are still some LABS that are smaller scale, but the strike is focusing on the big guns. I repeat, as the shows grew in scale and scope so did the demands of the LAB… the producers were demanding more and the LAB contract actually allowed for it. So, like my son the LABS grew to be giant and the AEA membership started demanding of the union. After all, how does a contract go unattended for 13 years? How does our union not bring this up over a 13-year period? Surprise, membership is pissed off. So, 13 years later AEA rolls up their sleeves and after town halls and e-mail blasts to determine what the membership feels is important. The ask to the Broadway League does not go well, an insulting reply to the Unions demands and a lack of willingness to negotiate sets the ball rolling and AEA determines the only solution is a work action, a strike.
So, I am sitting here today not being paid at all while I remain in solidarity with my Union. I cannot help but wonder if this garden had been tended to all along would I be preparing to create a piece of theatre instead of wondering if I can pay my bills.
The Tao of Stage Managing 