Last month I mentioned NPR was doing a series on theatre in the US. In fact, there is an installment in that series airing today. However, today I wanted to point out a entry in the series from early October which talks about the steps some theatres have taken to create better work environments.
In this particular episode they focus on the changes Baltimore Center Stage implemented, including the elimination of 10 out of 12 work days. I could have sworn I wrote about earlier, but can’t find that entry to it seems doubly important to draw attention to it.
…Center Stage joined a handful of other theaters pledging to do away with a practice known as “10 out of 12s.” It’s a shorthand for the hours theater workers put in. It refers to a rule where actors can’t work more than 10 hours in a 12 hour day. But once the actors are done, the crew has to go over notes and problem-solve things that didn’t work. So days for backstage workers can stretch into 14 hours, 16 hours, if not more. And those last hours always seem to take the most time.
[…]
Center Stage moved to an eight out of 10 workday, drawing praise from Lindsay Jones, a composer and sound designer for theater and film based in New York City and a member of the group No More 10 out of 12s.
[…]
From Jones’ perspective, theater as an industry has a tendency to work on autopilot and avoid any self-reflection. Jones says that when a place like Center Stage makes a move like that, it makes a broader difference.
“Their taking a stand, I believe, really did encourage others to stop and think about what they had been doing in their practices and could they make those changes,” he said.
The piece mentions other steps Center Stage has taken, including increasing compensation for staff which lead them to eliminate their internship program. Even though they had offered stipends and intern housing, they felt the arrangement was still exploitative.
But perhaps the most food for thought about what a work environment might look like in the future came near the opening of the piece which mentioned that theatre people often wrap so much of their identity around their passion for their chosen art. But that after having that taken away from them by the pandemic for a year or more:
“A lot of people realized that their identity didn’t disappear when they left theater for a year,” said Rachael Erichsen, props manager at Center Stage. “And once you realize that, then you do start to weigh those options — are the long hours, is the stress worth it for me?”