Robert DuSold

I had surgery a couple of weeks ago, and also an epic self tape audition due 2 days later..

I decided to choose my time wisely while waiting in a room with probably a dozen people behind thin curtains on hospital beds, and use the um, opportunity, to memorize 3 scenes and a new song for an upcoming show on Broadway.

My fab surgeon saw the pages strewn across my lap on the bed and asked what they were.

Under my little blanket and wearing my open ended attire I explained the characters and said it was a new Elton John musical yada yada..

We chatted about the characters… based on real people .. and he thought it was all pretty cool.

When my time came to have the surgery, I was surprised that I had to walk in holding an IV bag attached to my arm.

I sheepishly walked into the room… I’d say it was daunting.. there were probably 8 people in there… bright lights and everyone in scrubs and masks.

The man who would be operating on me then said:

“Sing”

“Will you sing for us? This guy has been on Broadway!”

So, I did. I mean what was I gonna do?

With my ass hanging out and holding an IV bag I sang a little bit of “Stars”.

I kept studying lines all weekend and had an incredibly generous, talented friend read with me for the self tape.

I set up green screens and microphones and angles and clothes and makeup before she came to tape with me.

We spent four and a half hours recording.

I felt it was one of the best auditions I had ever done.. she did too.

I edited the video ..that took another few hours.. rejoined Vimeo at $11.99 a month and sent it off to my agents.. who exist on email basically… one of them I’ve never met.

Since then, I have heard nothing. No feedback.

Nothing.

I had a follow up last week with my surgeon…everything is fine and dandy… and I explained the insane position most actors are in.

He said: “ I couldn’t do what you do”.

There are many, many issues that are unique to professional actors.. agonizingly low employment rates, ridiculously low wages..but the self tape thing is probably the most insane.

Instead of actually showing your craft in the only medium it can be..live.. we are now almost exclusively doing first round “auditions” for theater on video.

In a vacuum of absurd contradictions.

A union can fix this, at least try and mandate paying actors to produce what are in reality TV shows for free… or provide a myriad of options that would not further put the onus on actors .. and less on producers and creatives.. to just fucking get a job.

It’s like flying a plane by yourself.

But, here’s what we got instead.

If there’s ever like a virtual time capsule, this article would in a hundred years explain the erosion not only of Actors Equity, but commercial theater too.

Point by point, the soon to be ex President of Actors Equity, in a tone that doesn’t rise to the level of a patronizing low level politician, not only reveals the true focus of the union over the last few years, but at the same time blurs and obfuscates the responsibility and role Equity has had in contributing to the fact that theater has just not come back.

The theater industry is down 17% from pre-pandemic levels. Of course the pandemic was a seismic shift for the arts, but that significant of a loss obviously reflects a lower employment rate for actors and stage managers.

I have yet to see any interviewer ask what are the employment rates for union actors, how much money is coming into the union, and how many jobs are on the payroll currently compared to before Covid?

I find it bizaare that isn’t the first question when interviewing a union leader, and I’m sure those numbers would give a much clearer picture of the worsening outlook for professional actors and the union itself.

I don’t know those numbers either.

When asked about Equity’s role in shutting down theater:

“There came a point when everyone wanted to get back to work — me included, by the way — but we really had to grapple with the fact that we might be able to reopen an industry that was pretty safe for 22-year-old dancers who would be likely to survive Covid if they contracted it, but was that the industry we wanted to reopen, that was only safe for some of our members? What about seniors? What about those in our industry that are disproportionately and permanently immunocompromised because of the AIDS epidemic? We had to reopen an industry where we had enough safeguards in place that people could do their jobs without risking their lives.”

That’s the first I’ve heard of any concern for people with AIDS or seniors, particularly as a reason for shutting down… but it’s a nice thing to say I guess. And, actors are still dying from Covid… just not out in the open.

This is the most telling statement. When asked about labor organizing, this was her response:

“The arts industry doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The things that workers are waking up to around the world permeate our industry as well. The murder of George Floyd and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter really mobilized the majority of our membership. How do we reopen an industry that puts discrimination, harassment, racism, bullying and all those types of associated behaviors on an even footing with other reasons that we would tell an employer that there will be no Equity members at their show tonight unless they remedy that?”

The murder of George Floyd and the apparent resurgence of Black Lives Matter did not mobilize the majority of the membership.

It didn’t. I am sure it outraged most…as it did me..but it became a preoccupation for a pretty small amount of members in leadership to concentrate on something while theater was hibernating.

And it’s quite telling that the hyper focus on identity and harassment and discrimination and bullying did stall reopening theater.

There were oodles of harassment and discrimination rules in effect before the pandemic , and most of those laws are federal.

If the union was concerned about harassment and bullying, it wouldn’t have sat on its hands after a union member in a Broadway show committed suicide.. a factor undoubtedly was harassment in the workplace.

The focus on identity has not increased wages, or the amount of jobs..but it has contributed to a lot of bullying and harassment inside of the union ironically.

When asked about the state of the industry:

We’re still in recovery mode. I was so excited at the end of last season, which for my money was just about the best Broadway season I can remember. It feels like a time where we as an industry are trying to tell stories that haven’t traditionally gotten the platform. But there might need to be some continued evolution on things like marketing.

The entire industry is down nearly 20% and instead of discussing programming, content, mismanagement after several federal bailouts and exorbitant costs , the answer is…

Marketing.

Oh, and Republicans misleading tourists in cities with Democratic mayors by fear-mongering.

Kate Shindle has an opinion about everything. Everything… there are snarky posts all over social media with little hand clap thingys, clever wordplay, and posting private messages from colleagues.

But when asked about the union’s stunning silence on the slaughter in Israel.. she has no opinion, because the council didn’t want her to?

Lauren Boebert could have come up with something better, and it’s reprehensible that a union that now is a PAC would decide to remain silent on such a massive issue with such a significant portion of the membership being Jewish. Or “workers waking up to issues around the world permeating our industry”, as she stated.

Part of the legacy of the last several years is the monster that was created by inaction on one hand, and nothing but political admonitions on the other.

That whole political question that’s used in campaigns endlessly is..

ARE YOU BETTER OFF THAN YOU WERE FOUR YEARS AGO? Or 9 in this case.

I can’t think of very many actors, even with jobs, that would feel that they are better off now.

On her way out, when asked about the challenges her successor will face her answer was “wages”.

She left that nugget for the next person, because she never brought it up as a focus for her tenure.

Wages.

I’ll drink to that…..