Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2021 - 8

more humane industry built from greater
collectivity, including the creation of
more inclusive workspaces and practices
that advantage a wider diversity of workers.
Although their experiences are specific
to the commercial theatre industry
and Broadway in particular, their insights
should resonate with theatre workers
employed in a variety of positions and
circumstances.
" Long Intermission "
What is the value of professional skills
cultivated within a particular industry
when that industry is inert, when workers'
jobs are not eliminated, necessarily,
but suspended in amber? Answering this
question is one of the more productive
tasks we might accomplish during this
moment when uncertainty is the norm.
Theatre workers have emerged from
Broadway's " long intermission, " a phrase
coined by the ABC7 New York documentary
Ghostlight, changed and aware of
their industry's precarity (Einiger and
Hershkowitz 2021). The unsparing totality
of the industry's collapse with the
pandemic shutdown laid bare theatre
workers' collective lack of control and
conformity to an economic system that
benefits by convincing workers that they
are secure, that they control the mechanisms
of their subsistence and advancement.
With the time and space to reflect
on the persistent precarity professional
theatre workers face as a collective,
workers can cultivate a repaired understanding
of worker solidarity.
Perceived by many as the pinnacle
of theatrical career success in the U.S.,
the Broadway industry sets standards
for work practices that other theatres-
commercial, nonprofit, and amateur-
deem legitimate and attempt to replicate.
Certainly, the majority of theatre workers
in the U.S. lack the same benefits gained
through New York's strong unions, with
Local 1 of the International Alliance of
Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
wielding significant political heft. But
unions function within an already established
system that carries the weight of
precedent; in an altered but yet-to-be-defined
post-pandemic industry, technicians
on the ground are in the best position to
initiate change through inclusive behaviors
and collective allegiances across
the occupational tribes with whom they
previously felt the most familiar. IATSE's
8 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | FALL 2021
Gregg Mann wearing goggles, face mask and
gloves-the mandatory setup for all crew members
when shooting Diana the Musical for Netflix at The
Longacre in September 2020, which included being
in a bubble for three weeks. | Image courtesy of
Gregg Mann.
prospects. They learn to always work
when asked, often giving up weekends
and vacations. " The last thing you ever
want to do is turn someone down who
offers you work, " dresser Steve Epstein
told me. Although he just received his
second vaccination shot, he was waiting
to call work contacts until his immunity
date, when he was sure he would be
available. Technicians accept that working
on Broadway means weathering sudden
shifts in employment, so networking
and making good connections with the
heads of hiring departments is essential
to sustaining a Broadway career. They
might try to take a week off at the end of
a production, but they'll jump on the next
work opportunity regardless. Once they
build a strong network of contacts, they
can feel relatively certain that they'll find
their next gig within two or three, maybe
four weeks.
Many technicians entered the shut " IT'S
FUNNY, WE
LEFT SAYING,
'WE'LL BE BACK!
SEE YOU IN TWO
WEEKS!' "
-Gregg Mann, sound technician
political action committees can press
politicians to pass the Save Our Stages
Act that earmarked $15 billion dollars for
the entertainment industry; but individual
workers can connect more effectively
with community members who need local
resources and build new connections
when those needs exceed past expectations.
Before falling back into previously
established work rhythms, workers can
consider what they lost (and gained) during
the shutdown to imagine forward an
industry with just treatment and more
humane working conditions.
During follow-up conversations, these
technicians expressed how much the
contingent nature of theatrical work
trains them to feel unsettled when not
working. With largely seasonal and/or
production-specific contracts, most endeavor
to stay networked into future job
down with this default " temporary
break " mindset. Even after the terrorist
attacks on 9/11 that devastated the city,
Broadway only closed for two days. An
18-month closure was unimaginable,
and most assumed they would be back
to work after a short hiatus. " It's funny,
we left saying, 'We'll be back! See you in
two weeks!' " says Gregg Mann, a sound
technician at Diana the Musical. Mann
left his extra phone charger and some
personal items at his workstation and
found them in the exact same position
nine months later when he returned to
the Longacre Theatre for the filming of
Diana for Netflix. The entire cast and
crew quarantined in a hotel that only
they occupied-front of house staff on
one floor, backstage on another, separate
elevators designated for each. Producers
mandated daily
testing. They worked
14-hour days for 17 days straight, only
pausing for cold meals delivered from
the outside. " It was intense, " says Diana
dresser Kelly Saxon. She was grateful
for the paycheck, but it was not an experience
she'd ever want to repeat.
Cassie Givens, a sound mixer at the
musical Frozen, only briefly returned to
work at the St. James Theatre to load
out the production. Two months after
the shutdown, on May 14, 2020, the
New York Times reported Frozen's demise
as the first Broadway show " felled
by the coronavirus " (Paulson 2020). In
March when Givens received news of
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