Guthrie Theater's casting call seeking specifically non-union actors with "any time call availability" and schedules posted the night before. If you like the theaters of MN like I do, you should be aware of how they're abusing their prestige. support the artists, not the buildings.
Discussion 🎤Can you expand on the minimum 70 days? I don't see where that is coming from.
Sure!
In paragraphs 3 - 6, they explain the expectations of working and call-in days.
Breaking that down, Jan 23 - March 17, That's 53 days of being on call on weekday evenings or any time of day on the weekend. I didn't include this in my number, since they could be called "0 times". but for the sake of rehearsal, and as someone who was in the theater world for a good while, I'm going to give the Guthrie the benefit of the doubt and say this person is only called 10 times which is once a week, plus a couple extra as we approach tech week.
From March 16- April 13, the expectation is that you can be called any and every day (Up to 6 days a week) for a full day. That's 28 days of availability.
April 16 - May 26 Expected to perform every day, up to 9 performances a week. 41 days
So at the end of the day, 10 (technically could be 5 since those rehearsals could be half days) plus 28 days of tech/preview + 41 days of performances. 74 days of expectations.
This also doesn't break down the ridiculous expectations on the second page:
- Schedule is released the night before your call (good luck telling your job about this level of flexibility)
- all caps " Please do not audition if you cannot clear your calendar". This is hilariously unprofessional from a theater perspective.
- payment is only on the first rehearsal, and twice more during the productions.
Thanks for the breakdown.
Any idea what they'd have to pay for a union extra for a similar amount of commitment?
I mean, it would be significantly more, no question. I believe LORT (the trust of theaters that non-profits like the Guthrie have with the Actors Union) is around $1100 a week.
so over 17 weeks of production that's a lot of money. There are a lot of exceptions for the first week of rehearsal when they are first called, etc etc. But in the grand scheme of things, if the Guthrie organized the rehearsal schedule so "Jester #1" could come in for a week, not come in until a couple of weeks before tech, then go through the performance. It would absolutely cost more, but it would at least give them a more equitable wage.
The Actors Union is REALY complicated, so this is a super simple example, but it comes down to the Guthrie using its name to make life easier for itself and screw over actors.