Aaron and I have been discussing LA waiver theater and whether it’s better to make art with the resources you have ( a contract that pays no one very much ) or to hold off and advocate / fundraise for better payment. I think you should do both.

I found myself very close to the bone on the argument, having directed 3 LA waiver productions, and knowing exactly how hard it was to raise enough money to pay people – and being a member of a waiver company, and proud of its work in producing new plays and experimental work.

But, just imagine…if there was no 99-seat plan, would theaters all be like Syzygy in LA, and fundraise all year until they could produce a play under an Equity contract? And would that be better than producing 4 or 5 shows a year, where no one gets wages to speak of?

I don’t want to see a world without Theatre of NOTE but I find myself hard-pressed to defend the model of waiver theater as a method of making a living. Which is why I’ve left LA.

I do believe that NOTE’s role in producing new plays and new work makes it ideally suited for a lower-tier contract, and I don’t want to see it or companies like it driven out of business. But should some theaters be forced to go on a low-level Equity contract? Should there be a timespan under which you can operate waiver, and then have to go union?

The best way of instituting more change is probably just to have more union companies in LA, to have more houses make the jump – to make it seem successful, to figure out marketing and survival models for it, not just legislate change and then watch as meaningful, small companies are driven out of the landscape.

Incentive, not destructive.

Keep the waiver model in place until another is working, but put incentives in place for companies that do migrate to a union contract.

I’m very torn about it.

This quote came up in the conversation.

“The artist in ancient times inspired, entertained, educated his
fellow citizens. Modern artists have an additional responsibility —
to encourage others to be artists. Why? Because technology is going
to destroy the human soul unless we realize that each of us must in
some way be a creator as well as a spectator or consumer. Make your
own music, write your own books, if you would keep your soul.”
— Pete Seeger