Interesting developments in Buffalo, NY coming to me via A Poor Player blog. Facing a large deficit, the management of the Studio Arena took a number of cost cutting measures including eliminating 14 positions and reducing the number of designers for each show.

They also decided to collaborate with local performance groups and present two of their productions as part of the Studio Arena season. This is the type of thinking I, among others, have encouraged performing arts groups to engage in– partnering up rather than competing.

There was a little catch though that anyone seeking to follow my encouragement should heed. These partner organizations were comprised of non-union actors and the Studio Arena is an Equity house. Tom Loughlin who write A Poor Player includes links to three &nbsp stories about the conflict between Studio Arena and the Actors Union to provide the back story. (All Acrobat documents)

The theatre and union eventually came to a resolution and arranged for the non-union groups to be paid according to the lower LORT D payrate rather than the LORT B rate that the Studio Arena usually needs to pay actors at. The non-union actors will have the option of applying for their union cards after the performance runs are complete.

In his blog Tom raises some issues the newspaper articles don’t, issues I suspect won’t be unique to the Buffalo area. He feels that local Equity actors have never been able to win with the Studio Arena. He points out that the regional theatre movement was started with the idea that local actors could find employment. Instead, actors from New York City were hired with few local actors getting more than token smaller roles. (A long time trend I recently noted.)

Now, in tighter financial times you might think local actors would see more employment given that there is no housing and transportation expenses to pay. Instead, Tom says, the local Equity actors are being skipped over in favor of even cheaper labor from non-union actors.

The whole concept of partnering on efforts remains a good one. I hate to have to qualify my feelings in the context of this incident by adding: as long as it is done with the intent of strengthening all those involved rather than circumvent obligations. There is no evidence that Studio Arena sought to exploit perceived loopholes other than the suspicions people have about its motivations.

As one of the articles notes, union membership has always been a mixed bag for actors hindering opportunities as much as facilitating them. With an increasing number of theatres finding themselves on financial unstable ground and the Studio Arena precedent, I wonder how many more concessions Actors’ Equity might find themselves making in the near future.

With the movie studios calling for an end of residual payments to writers, actors and directors, it looks like some tough years ahead for union members on many fronts.

Last month, the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed four resolutions regarding the arts.

The resolutions, which may be found on pages 7-10 of the Acrobat document were (my emphasis)

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the United States Conference of Mayors supports the conclusions of the Arts and
Economic Prosperity III study and urges mayors across the
country to invest in nonprofit arts organizations through their local arts agencies as a catalyst to generate economic impact, stimulate business development, spur urban renewal, attract tourists and area residents to community activities, and to improve the overall quality of life in America’s cities.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the United States Conference of Mayors urges mayors to consider these recommended arts policy strategies to help stimulate private giving to the arts and arts education in America.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the United States Conference of Mayors urges mayors to build partnerships with their local arts agencies and other members of the arts and humanities community in their cities to proclaim, to participate in, and to celebrate the month of October as National Arts and Humanities Month.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the United States Conference of Mayors reaffirms its support of the National Endowment for the Arts (and specifically the valuable Challenge America program), National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Office of Museum Services within the Institute of Museum and Library Services and calls upon Congress to restore full funding for these agencies in the FY’08 appropriations bills.

Now granted, these resolutions aren’t binding in the least. That doesn’t mean you can’t use it to your benefit though. Plug your mayor’s name (or city) into the search field in the upper right hand corner of the web site to determine if your mayor is a member of the conference. Then contact his/her honor and congratulate them for joining with their colleagues in ratifying these items and provide suggestions on how you can collaborate.

The better prepared you are with your proposal and the more unity you can show with other arts organizations, arts councils and even chambers of commerce, the more effective I imagine your efforts will be. It doesn’t matter if your mayor voted for the resolution or not, as noted in an earlier entry, if you give him/her an opportunity to look like a good person, there is a good chance of success. Of course, the better the local economy, the better your chances of getting direct financial support from your city.

Getting the mayor to take these resolutions to heart and advocate on behalf of the arts community to businesses and other governmental entities may end up being of greater value than what the municipal budget could provide.

The these four resolutions were submitted by the committee on tourism, arts, parks, entertainment and sports. Unfortunately, the Conference of Mayors website only lists the committee chair. It would be interesting to learn who else serves on the committee since the citizens those mayors serve would have a greater claim on those politicians to step up to their convictions.