| Author | Message | ||
     Blake |
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confid ential/2010/12/power-unions-average-stagehand-linc oln-center-nyc-makes-290k-year Descriptive hyperlink tells it all. | ||
| 86129squids |
"Descriptive hyperlink tells it all." Umm, OK, read it twice. Hunnhh??! Somehow, descriptive hyperlink becomes an oxymoron. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I shoulda stayed in the Biz...maybe IATSE Local 22 is accepting new hands.... | ||
| Littlebuggles |
I had a hard time just paying the parking fees when I was with IATSE, never saw anywhere near that kind of money. I was a little down on the crew call list though... I suppose if I'd gotten my lift and high lift certs I'd have made enough to buy lunch all week long, and pay the downtown daily parking. If I could have made a living and not had to sweat making enough each month I'd probably never have gone to work for the sheriff. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
The walls of Jericho will come down... | ||
| Lightstick |
Just propaganda to push a personal agenda | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
i did and do work for the IA and don't even come close to that. | ||
| Badlionsfan |
Are these theaters going bankrupt? How much do performers make? If people wouldn't go these places to see shows, they'd all be unemployed. Would that be better, less tax revenue and more people on unemployment?? Not sure there's a point to this article being written or linked here. | ||
| Spatten1 |
Chicago used to get tons of conventions. Not anymore. You get fined there if you plug something in on your display, because the union electrician needs to plug things in, he knows how to do it safely. You can't carry any of your own display, you gotta pay the unions to do it. You can't break down your display and go home, you have to wait for the union guy you have to pay to get around to it. The NMMA show is HUGE, and now it's in Miami. | ||
| Spatten1 |
The pendulum swings both ways, it just takes time. Times were great in Michigan, now the jobs are in TN and AL. They will milk it for a while, and it will crash due to excess and greed. | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
and..... http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2010/12/top -local-government-brass-rake-big-bucks#ixzz19KpYU4 1s | ||
| Just_ziptab |
Spatten1,we paid something like $90.00 to have a simple incandescent light bulb replaced in our booth at McCormick Place. Everyone wants to be a millionaire .......... | ||
| Court |
. (Message edited by court on December 31, 2010) | ||
| Court |
How much do performers make? Depends . . . gal I know is making a very comfortable living as a star on Broadway . . . BUT (and this is a huge BUT) . . . it took years of hard work and traveling theatre to hit "The Great White Way". She poo-poos the entire "star" thing but I always tease her and send her the pics of all the hundreds of fans that wait outside for her to leave every night to get an autograph. Tough work. . . . 6 days a week and 2 days with matinees as I recall. She gets home late at night and it's easy to forget that she doesn't "have the day free" . . it's auditions, meetings and so forth and like she's told me . . .I'm ALWAYS looking for my next job. Hard . . but fun. By the way . . there are LOTS of kids leaping in the business as well.  Jayne in dressing room - This was at Bye Bye Birdie - She also starred in Wicked.  Jayne signing autographs - this was hilarious - she kept talking about sneaking out for something to eat. After the show, we were waiting outside but so were hundreds of other folks by the stage door. Various actors came and went but the crowd stayed. Jayne came out and it was like the Beatles entering Shea Stadium. She does an incredible job. OF course, she did in high school too.   It takes LOTS of clothes to pull off all the various scenes . . . .  Which means a full staff is pretty much doing wash all night every night in preparation for the next days show . . .   Deanna Cipolla signing first big contract  Allie Trimm - one of the up and coming "Kid Actors"  Allie with John Stamos | ||
| Ratbuell |
Court makes a good point. Most folks think the Biz is an "easy gig" for actors and crew. It's not. I ran a roadhouse for six years after college. 300 shows a year in a 1929 Vaudeville house with 1200 seats and a 600 pipe (I think; tuning took forEVER) original installation (restored) Wurlitzer organ. It was an oddball - an old movie house with full backstage area, fly gallery, wings, and pit. 300 dimmers, four overhead electrics, two overhead lighting bridges in the house, a balcony rail, four side booms, a full projector/screen setup, twenty-six scenic battens overstage (sandbag counterweight with hemp rigging), and house audio system. I was there for every...single...show. 16 hour days, 6 days a week. And I didn't even *travel*. Not only were there the shows (yes, 300+ a year...in 365 days...do the math), but there was the maintenance. I spent a weekend with a full crew stringing 2.5 MILES of new 1/2" Multiline II rigging line in the fly gallery, because the hemp that had been in place since 1976 was literally dryrotting overhead. Changing light bulbs in the house chandeliers? A full day. They weighed 1500lb each and cranked up and down by hand from the attic. The runway shots Court has above are just the posing and advertising for the entertainment industry. That's the easy part (and actually, most performers I've met think of it as a nuisance - "can I just get to Makeup so I can start working, please?"). The costume racks, laundry room, and dressing rooms are more like it...but even those shots are among the cleanest backstage areas I've seen. The stories about Jayne wanting to grab a bite but not being able to because she's swamped? Absolutely true, and more of a hardship than you can imagine. Think about it - you can't have a life. Yes, you may have "chosen" your line of work, and "this is what you get" for being a success...but it still sucks. McDonalds? TGIFridays? Starbucks? Grocery store? Forget it. Never going in one again, because they can't get out safely. That's a huge part of life...gone. A friend of mine was a child star. Then got into TV acting once it became the "big thing". Then movies. All along, he kept with the live stage. Then he got into teaching. We went out for drinks after a show one night, and he had the best answer to "you look like Gomez"..."yeah, I get that a lot". Very patient man, wonderful guy, and his wife is a real sweetheart. He told me a story one day. He and his wife went to Ireland for a weekend visit. Found an island that had no TV. Ever. They stayed for over a month (until a dumb American ruined it - "HEY, I know you!!!!") because for the first time in his LIFE, he was simply...John. People lose sight of all the hard work and passion that goes into performance work. What makes it worthwhile for the performers, though...is when that curtain goes up and they get to do what they love. Great photos, Court. Buy her a coffee or a quick lunch sometime for an old stagehand, and pass along my thanks for helping keep live stage shows going | ||
| Blake |
I'd not want to be a celebrity. The half a million per year prop manager's job would be doable. | ||
| Indybuell |
Good for them. Unions aren't entirely bad. My beef is with unions that take TAX dollars to keep the useless in jobs they can't do. | ||
| Crusty |
A Union bashing thread on Badweb. How unusual. | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Ha-ha It was good to get on union gigs instead of my usual contract work. I found that by being industrious I could get the easy work done in almost half the time the others did, and it left me more time for my regular work. I was surprised by the lazy attitude of guys who'd been working union gigs for a long time. Those dudes were road blocks more than speed bumps locally. I eventually decided to find "regular" work. I really miss the work, even if it was just for entertainment, it felt a lot more like real work than what I do now. If my work schedule allowed for it I'd be pulling ropes and pushing boxes part time. | ||
| Crackhead |
Joe, it sounds like my life in high school. Our theater wasn't that old (1970s) I spent 10 hrs a week for 3 months rebuilding the cans and fresnels. I couldn't believe how much brighter the lights where after all of the lenses where cleaned and we finally had a full 3 color stage wash. |
