Anonymous

“I was working on a musical during Ramadan. 2 10/12 tech days while fasting. That’s sun up to sun down no eating food or drinking water. Instead of stage management moving the 2 hour dinner break until later in the day, they kept it as is. When the sun eventually went down, we weren’t even given a 10. We had to shove granola bars down and chug water in between lighting cues being set.”

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AnonymousAnonymous

“And there was one night where it was a few minutes to the time we supposed to be released for the day but the director insisted that we run the scene that was just teched before leave. There clearly wasn’t enough time to do this and everyone was dead tired but our stage manager did not stop it. This scene required a transition into another scene where a multi-hundred pound living room set had to be hung maybe 40-50 feet in the air. Now because everyone was rushing to get this done since we were clearly the out of time for that day’s 10/12, the set piece was not hung properly and almost dropped on a cast member who thankfully had moved out of the way in time.”

AnonymousAnonymous

“As a disabled individual, 10/12s and the 6-day work week are an incredible obstacle in my work. Among other things, I am immune-compromised and lack of sleep only makes my already fragile immune-system weaker. I often experience work-induced flare ups of my chronic conditions due to the long days and long work weeks. It makes it harder for me to be present when my body is fighting me and causes me to loose work because I can’t “struggle through” as we are too often expected to do.”

“I take about 7 different medications a day, some multiple times a day, most are time-sensitive and many require a strict eating schedule that the 10/12 or constantly varying work-days do not accommodate. I have to make impossible decisions choosing between taking my medications or eating enough; between work or medical procedures; between loosing work today because of illness/flare up or going and risking hospitalization; between fulfilling the expectations of my job and taking care of my body.”