Patti LuPone. When I was spinning the vinyl of “Evita” in the late 70’s, non-stop, her voice and persona simultaneously thrilled me, inspired me, and taught me to fucking sing with passion, hit those notes and get what was mine… and I’m a boy but that didn’t even matter.
A few short and eternal years later I joined the last national tour of “Evita” ..my first big gig. That was no accident I can see these many short and eternal years later. My start of getting what was mine.
I will brag and say we have shared the stage since then a couple of times. How wonderful is that?
Patti LuPone is still leading the way… continuing to be a trailblazer with courage, and not giving a fuck. In that way, I would say we’re alike. Maybe she helped me with that.
Patti has left the cult… something that takes balls and self realization and a perspective that is hard earned.
She has left Actors Equity Association.
If there is one thing that’s been clear to me for quite some time, AEA is a cult.
Actors Equity is a cult peeps. Without a doubt.
Now, that may shock you, infuriate you, maybe make you sad, make you nod in agreement or result in a huge sigh of relief.
I guess I’ve felt all those emotions over the past few years during my tenure in the cult.
I’m watching the new season of “The Vow”, which dropped last night as fate would have it. It’s about a cult called NXIVM… you know, the new age cult built on a fantasy utopian society that had some very wealthy members who idolized a charismatic leader.
It devolved into mostly ruining it’s members both financially and spiritually with some weird crazy shit thrown in there of sexual mutilation and kidnapping and sex trafficking.
C’mon it’s HBOMax.
Anyway, the leader is in jail now and the cult went bankrupt.
One of the many things I’ve learned about the pathology of cults is most of the followers have generally good intentions when joining.. they truly want to do good. They are fiercely passionate and unaware what they are a part of. They are just obsessed and can’t seem to get out.
They scorn the people who leave. Threaten them. Mock them for not being authentic and real, egged on by the higher-ups in the cult or the leader himself.
Everything devolves into chaos and warring factions and an absolute loss of the core mission of the organization.
You know where I’m going with this. I have written about it for years.
My friends, Actors Equity is cult. The organization has devolved into a fantasy based, identity driven cult that is obsessed with itself and lost it’s core mission.
The not so charismatic leader of this cult has brandished social media as her weapon and seduction of choice, being very effective. She’s good at that… it’s easy to stir the shit with snark and teeny symbols of hand claps. Existing on the interwebs, and no where else.
But, the hamster wheel is where the shitstirring stays. While most are running in place……nothing gets accomplished.
Nothing but damage.
Equity can’t get out of it’s own way at this point. The cult is white knuckling bigotry, gender politics, and sexual politics as the only thing left to make some sort of impact, helped by theater rags, the New York Times and various industry people who have fallen under the spell.
They have given up on health and safety considerations, respectful discourse, gainful employment, increased contracts and just about anything practical.
This cup of crazy has been brewing before Covid-19, but I’d say the void left while we were sleeping was the perfect opportunity to busy the theater industry with that utopian .. I’m still wondering what that utopia is… fantasy and little else.
The union is obsessed with race. Obsessed. Certainly Ms. Shindle’s index fingers are. She has stirred racial animus directed at members, gender animus at men(natch) and a host of other identity boogeymen that seem to pour out of her on the sosh like dollar bills thrown at strippers.
And I have every fucking screenshot. Ok, that’s not true. I have as many as my iCloud memory storage can hold.
But, if Whitney Houston asks, I got the receipts… many are on my blog posts. Read them, please.
The union is not terribly interested in the people who have made money and supported it for some eternal years. While proclamations of hallowed Native American ground are now part of rehearsals, they seem to be missing the one about the reason they can stand there..at all.. is because of LuPone, and I’m just gonna slide on in there with hundreds of my coworkers… who have kept the union functioning, supported it and nurtured it long before the cult.
LuPone is leaving.. not because of dues caps or money or calling audience members out.
She’s leaving because the union no longer supports her. And a whole lotta people agree with her.
The Company star told the magazine that the union, which administers contracts and provides other services for nearly all actors and stage managers on Broadway and at many professional regional theatres around the country, doesn’t “support actors at all. … They’re just not good. And I just didn’t want to give them any more money.” She goes on to clarify that while the decision was inspired by a career choice to not return to Broadway for the foreseeable future, that doesn’t mean we won’t see her back on the boards again at some point. “[T]he best kept secret is that you can perform without being a member of Equity. Nobody knows that, so I don’t use their services
I hope you read every word of that. Every word. Patti LuPone has drawn millions of people to Broadway I would wager over the years.
And, she’s fucking had it.
And, so have I. And so have many of my friends.
My hope is this is the start of the union dissolving frankly. The cult really…it’s not a union anymore.
Thank you Patti. Thank you for leading the way, again. I’m with you. I will not be giving Actors Equity my money anymore either. And I hope the secret gets out that you don’t have to be a member to work.. I already knew that, but I guess I kept secrets as most cult members do.
I’m a reforming cult member I suppose.
The last few years of the formation of the cult have been hard for me to witness… mostly to see the damage that’s been caused to my friends. A few of us have rallied to the point where we’re popping the corn and ready to watch it implode.
That gem is in response to a Broadway show blowing up. Like a couple of days ago after a cult member disparaged her entire cast, the creative team and obviously the show she was in quite publicly in an interview on some raggy website, obviously in breach of her contract. I will spare you the interview.
That chaos and damage is being supported by the president of Actors Equity., and the staff.. and of course, framed in identity politics.
Patti, wait for me!
Robert DuSold 
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