Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2022 - 21

likely technicians and artisans who work
in the various departments of the technical
staff. Nearly everyone on this list must
work around the time that the actors are
on stage to complete notes that arise during
the rehearsal, to finish design work,
to clean and prepare the theatre and
stage for the rehearsal, etc. Simple math
dictates that these people are working
longer hours than the actors, and therefore
putting in more than 52 hours in the
seven days prior to the first performance.
At the Utah Shakespeare Festival
(USF), which is not a LORT member but
uses an AEA Special Agreement referencing
the LORT rulebook, and therefore
following the same workday rules (Actors
Equity Association), the workweek for
production staff was normally 60 hours,
and then during tech weeks, increased to
80 to 100 hours, with department heads
working as much as 140 hours in that
seven-day timeframe (Smallwood 2020,
129). The workday often began at 10 a.m.
and ended at 3 or 4 a.m., allowing for a
quick nap before another grueling workday
(Smallwood 2020, 129). Smallwood
describes USF production manager
Becky Merold's experiences during her
first season: " Becky started having difficulty
focusing. She found it challenging
to run meetings and remember facts and
details, despite normally having a good
memory. Her motivation dropped, despite
a deep desire to do well in her new
position. Changes were jarring and hard
to deal with. Any problem that arose put
her on the brink of a personal meltdown.
Becky recalled crying in the bathroom
over these stressors during the first two
years in her position " (2020, 131).
Terri Kohler, an AEA production stage
manager, expressed the following to
Josh Loar for his article " It's Time for a
New Labor Movement in the Performing
Arts " : " Say the rehearsal day is 10 a.m.
to 6 p.m., with a meal break in there. I'm
there at the latest by 9:30 a.m., usually 9
a.m. And I'm there, probably, till 7 p.m.
You get the same lunch break everybody
does, but your day is also two hours longer
at least. And that's a six-day week...
Sometimes this pressure was made explicit,
and sometimes it was subtle-like
a manager acting a bit too exasperated if
you weren't fully caught up on new production
notes and changes by the start of
the next working day (2020).
Currently no study exists that tracks
The American
Institute
of Stress
warns that
workload
is the
largest
contributor
of stress for
Americans
and has
" escalated
progressively
over the
past few
decades. "
the number of hours that entertainment
professionals work, but in his research,
Smallwood indicates that, anecdotally,
there is a standard of more than 49 hours
per week throughout the work process
(2020, 8).
High Impact of Long Hours
The Japanese term karoshi appears often
in research about work hours and sustainability.
Karoshi translates to " death
by overwork " and it is meant quite literally
(Smallwood 2020, 7). Often linked
to exhaustion-caused death, karoshi
is sometimes also manifested by suicide
and is a very real problem in a culture
of overworked Japanese people
(Smallwood 2020, 6-7). In 2016, Japan
reported 2,000 deaths due to overwork
(Smallwood 2020, 8). As karoshi pertains
to the entertainment industry in the
United States, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention reported in 2018,
" 'Arts, design, entertainment, sports,
and media: jobs such as illustrators,
designers, professional sports players,
and actors' occupational group had the
second-highest suicide rate among men,
and the highest suicide rate among women' "
(Smallwood 2020, 9). In considering
Smallwood's anecdotal number of 49
hours or more in an entertainment industry
workweek, and the related studies on
overwork and suicide, there appears to
be a clear association.
The correlation between work hours
and well-being are an oft-studied topic
that has raised considerable concern for
the individual worker (Sparks, Cooper,
Fried, & Shirom 1997, 391). One study,
conducted in 1960, using a sample of
22,176 U.S. workers over three years,
reported that working more than 48
hours a week doubled one's chances of
dying from coronary heart disease (cited
in Sparks et al. 1997, 399). A 1991
Japanese study uncovered that in 203
cases of karoshi victims who died from
cardiovascular incidents, two-thirds were
working more than 60 hours, including
up to 50 hours of overtime in addition to
the 40-hour work week which Japan has
attempted to standardize by law (Sparks
et al, 1997, 401; National Labour Law
Profile: Japan 2011). A British study of
one million white-collar workers reported
physical and mental negative effects,
manifesting in health, personal relationship,
and family issues directly related to
" long working hours " (Sparks et al 1997,
400). While these studies are all qualitative
in nature, quantitative research by
a meta-analysis of 19 qualitative studies
resulted in support of a " small but
significant positive trend of increased
health symptoms with increasing hours
of work " (Sparks et al 1997, 401).
The more general term " burnout " is
defined as " a syndrome of emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization, and reduced
personal accomplishment, " offered by social
psychologist Christina Maslach, who
created the Maslach Burnout Inventory
to assess burnout in human service occupations
(Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner,
& Schaufeli 2001, 499-500). Another instrument
used to measure burnout is the
Oldenberg Burnout Inventory (OLBI),
which focuses on exhaustion and disengagement
from work. Exhaustion is a
recurring term in many discussions centered
on work-life balance and burnout
and can be subdivided into emotional
exhaustion and physical exhaustion, the
SUMMER 2022 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | 21
Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2022

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