Robert DuSold

Joni Mitchell reference. Get used to it.

I came upon …..an ad for “To Kill a Mockingbird” 2.0 on Broadway and saw Ed Harris talking about the play, and the first thing that came to mind was “didn’t he sue AEA a couple years ago”?

So, I did the goog and sure enough, he did.

https://youtu.be/TxiSgi3GxFY

He sued the union .. and I’m simplifying this for storytelling purposes.. for union actors in LA to have the right to work for free. You know, the love of acting and flexing your creative muscles and all that…

The union was the bad guy in this sitch, and actors who made a living from stage work were hacks and not artists. Again, broad(way) takeaways …but I saved the receipts as it were.

The civil war of LA vs NY actors came to a head a couple of years ago when Harris and Ed Asner and a few D listy celebrity actors sued the union. I was drawn into the battle , mostly from a philosophical standpoint ..detached.. about unions and economics, at first.. and then a deeper place about art and freedom and all a dat. Oh, and it got personal. Let’s say one of the guys from “Third Rock From the Sun” thinks I’m an asshole. There’s others. Some would surprise you.

I’ve learned a lot in the last couple of years, and when I saw Harris hawking his starring role in a Broadway show it got me thinking.

Here’s what I’ve learned in the last couple of years.

There’s very few people in AEA who think strategically. I’ve wondered, pretty much my whole career, how things happened the way they have in the union. This situation in LA brewed for years. Salaries have plummeted on the road for almost 2 decades now. Non equity tours have exponentially increased.

Surely, there’s gotta be a bunch of people in the union who think long term, think about the market, think about the big picture.

There’s not. There’s not a bunch of people.. there’s a scant few. And I say that as more of a slow reckoning than an insult.

I can see how this Jets and Sharks union thing happened.

So then there’s the guy who’s making thousands a week starring in a Broadway show. We belong to the same union… I’ve made way thousands less being in a few Broadway shows, but hey, we have more in common than not. I don’t know Ed Harris.. I’ve never met him and have not a thing against him.

I guess the question becomes how does a guy who’s making big bucks in a Broadway show sue the very union that is responsible for his big bucks?

Stay tuned. I have some guesses.

https://youtu.be/EU_mbEpTuxE