Summer Employment while in College

MomCares
Wed, 11 May 2016 22:18:06 +0000

My feeling is that sometimes it’s worth it for a college-aged or older actor to take low pay for a theater gig, but ONLY if there is some other really great “payoff” - working with a fantastic director, learning a new skill that has “value”, working in a desirable city/venue, etc. Otherwise, it’s my belief that working for such low pay just perpetrates the de-valuing of creative skills - it happens every time a skilled creator is asked to “donate” their unique abilities to a non-profit or an intern pays for the “privilege” of slaving away a summer to get “experience”. Yes, it can be fun. and yes, there can be real learning, and yes, there are “dues” to pay for experience or portfolio pieces, but when it becomes borderline exploitation. it’s time to draw a line - IMHO.

I agree with @mom4bwayboy on this one.

D’s sophomore summer she did Strawhats and had several summerstock offers, but she wasn’t thrilled by any of the theatres that attended that year and decided to do a school show during the summer instead. Unlike the summerstock offers, the school show was unpaid (and like @soozievt we paid for nothing during summers), so she took a survival job (telemarketing) on the side.

I second-guessed her choice to turn down paying summerstock, but as it played out she made a great decision. The director of the school show was well-connected in the local theatre community, and shortly after he offered her an Equity card and a 4 month contract which led to steady professional work from then until now (2+ years).

A fringe benefit is that she disliked the telemarketing job so much that she has hustled extra hard ever since to avoid needing a survival job, and so far so good (knocking on wood).