<p>I’ve recently seen discussions on the history of National Tours that may be of interest to some here. </p>
<p>In addition to reduced salaries and increasing ticket prices, one thing that jumped out at me is that some current contracts allow forty hours a week of travel (up to ten hours a day) in a bus, in addition to performing 8 shows.</p>
<p>How do people survive these tours? If your kids have done them, do they take a physical/emotional toll, or are they actually fun and/or a great learning experience? How do they compare to cruise ship work?</p>
<p>@vocal1046 - the conditions described by momcares are union working conditions - see the Equity SETA agreement. Up to 10 hours per day on a bus on non-performing days, 3 hours on a double performance day and 7 hours on a single performance day. Equity has steadily reduced their travel, salary, and other requirements in recent years to compete with non-union tours.</p>
<p>I am aware of the complaints about AEA organizing these lower budget tours but I didn’t know that ten hours of travel plus a show was permitted in a single day as described. Certainly better to recapture the work and bargain it upward over time than to allow more non-union work. I have a lot of faith in President Wyman and his crew.</p>
<p>Yes, the travel conditions I described are SETA contracts, which as I understand it came into being in response to non-union tours starting with the 2001 non-union Music Man tour. I think they even allow a few 13 hour travel days thrown into the mix. I realize I’m looking at all of this through the eyes of a formerly-pampered engineer, but it does feel like a classic race to the bottom in terms of working conditions.</p>
<p>Are professional actors exempt from minimum wage and other basic labor laws?</p>
<p>Here’s another snippet from one of the articles:</p>
<p>2002 Production Contract Minimum: $1,250
Alleged Non-Equity Salary: $450 + Housing + $35 per diem
Percentage of Production Contract Earned: 55.6%</p>
<p>2013 Production Contract Minimum: $1,807
2013 SETA Category Six Salary: $548 + Housing + $48 per diem
Percentage of Production Contract Earned: 48.9%</p>
<p>I have been a touring professional for 19 years as an audio engineer. My first tour (8 month contract) was an non-equity theatre tour and two weeks in I let the producer know he had to hire an assistant for me or replace me. He hired an assistant. To say it was exhausting would be putting it lightly. The next was an equity tour, flight and hotels, no busses. Much better conditions. From then on I have toured arenas and stadium shows worldwide. At no point have the gigs been “easy”.
The only way to be able to deal with less than appropriate conditions is you have to be ready to walk away.
I have never been on a cruise via contract only as an artist representative, but from what I have seen the cast and crews on the ships work their tails off.
There are very few gigs that do not require a fair amount of emotional and physical stain.
All my gigs have been great learning experiences. And for the most part the crews and casts have been great to tour with. The people who tour work hard and play hard. If you can handle it it is a great experience. If not…it can break you.</p>
<p>Of course most of our kids are just getting started, so no doubt the idea of landing a contract - any contract - is probably thrilling to them, but it’s interesting to learn a bit more about the world they will be entering compared to the world that came before.</p>
<p>When comparing union minimums with non-union compensation it is important to remember that other benefits accrue with union work. The math above is not only suspect given the “producers’ POV” source but fails to compare apples to apples. Your kid’s work on a union job can provide him with health insurance and a pension, which may not seem important to a teenager but which parents know will be crucial in the long term. Pension contributions that begin at 21 will amount to a meaningful payout when the work opportunities diminish. Comparing jobs based on cash-in-hand-today is short sighted. Proper health care is critical for a performer of any age. There’s also the matter of a bond, contract enforcement, workplace safety and so on. Maturing into adult decision making means, to a great extent, forgoing immediate satisfaction in favor of longer term gains. The unexamined contract that appeals today may look quite different when the kid gets injured tomorrow. The thrill of “landing a contract” is tasty in the moment but can turn quite sour when the realities of working life set in.</p>
<p>I didn’t interpret the articles above to suggest that non-union work was preferable or even equivalent to non-union. My main takeaway was that there’s been an overall downward spiral in touring contracts, and since it apparently started accelerating in 2001 I don’t suppose it can be attributed to The Glee Effect.</p>
<p>Touring is not something you want to be doing with your life forever. However, knowing how tough this business is, booking a tour can definitely be a positive thing. I know dozens and dozens of actors who have toured, both Equity and non-Equity. I don’t think any would say that they regret it but they certainly wouldn’t want to do it forever. The actors I know who did non-Eq tours had a good experience. As I’ve mentioned before, not all non-Eq tours are the same. In the mid 00s, Networks was known for treating their people well. Most of those actors were young, recent grads, and even a few who had taken leaves of absence from college to go on tour. They earned far more than those numbers quoted above, including a much higher per diem, which was the number that could easily be negotiated. Most of the stops were longer runs than some tours have today. These kids, as was mentioned, worked hard and played even harder. Some of them too hard, which affected them in the long run.</p>
<p>It’s very possible that more recent tours are not run as well, I don’t know, but it would be a shame, and a mistake, in my opinion, for a young actor to refuse a good opportunity at touring based on what may appear to be difficult travel/work scheduling. The actors I know who have toured, and then returned to the city and established themselves in shows there, usually are happy to be ‘home’ but also nostalgic for the touring experience. Back in the city, it is more like a ‘real’ job, and people come to the theatre, do the show, then go home to their significant other. The camaraderie and the experience are not the same.</p>
<p>Different strokes. To my mind, difficult travel/work scheduling is of minor importance compared to workplace safety, health and pension credits, and a collectively bargained contract backed by meaningful enforcement. Most important, I deeply believe that qualified actors accepting non-u jobs are working against their own (and their community’s) future - devaluing expertise in a marketplace that thrives on the desperation of the hopeful. I fully comprehend that some here feel differently and know others who agree. Still, I feel duty-bound to alert young performers (and their parents) to the dangers of working without union protections. I don’t require that anyone share my point of view and I have no wish to argue. </p>
<p>Here’s the part I don’t understand….I am a teacher and when I got hired I joined the union. I didn’t have to jump through hoops to get my union card. Why do performers have to? Once you get hired to do a job, they should accept you into the union.</p>
<p>No, you can’t attend an EPA if you are not a member. A signator employer can audition non-union workers and that is, of course, how most people end up joining - by getting a job. If there was no pathway in, then there would be no members.</p>