“I would work upwards of 60-80 hours a week not getting paid accurately for my time. I had no life, no friends, in a brand new city and I could barely afford to eat. I felt depressed and often cried in the dark in the sound booth…I knew I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life like that so I left theatre all together about 7 years ago.”
“It is not really a 10 out 12 for the designers and other technicians in the venue – Even as an assistant (Broadway level) I never worked less than 16 hours on those days. There are many uncompensated hours – there’s an implicit form of gatekeeping in there.”
“It is a turn-off to young folks from low income communities – they do not see it as a viable career to follow. $2,000 for several weeks of work? If you look at what it comes down to hourly, which I figured out by doing the math, was below minimum wage, you get paid more at Starbucks.”
“…this culture is extra hard on mothers and caretakers when there is an unspoken expectation work in excess of 16-18 hours a day during tech. That does not even account for all of the work accumulated in the process- meetings, managing email, sketches and drawings…etc.”
“How is someone going to ask to leave to go home/set time boundaries on their work to attend to their family obligations when they feel like doing so will cost them all future work?”
“As an assistant, you are especially vulnerable. On one occasion I worked 22+ hours straight with no break for three days in a row- and I mean NO break, not a meal break, not time to sleep- because there was a big “emergency” precipitated by the lead designer’s poor planning and lack of respect for equity rules. He got sleep and breaks, by the way, just not the third assistant.”
“Underpinnings of our industry are made up of this idea that we should never complain – that we feel compelled to give this free labor. And when we question it, we feel frowned upon.”
“My students are mostly BIPOC and 1st or 2nd generation, or are the first to attend college. And the culture of our business is a turn-off for them. We need more economic diversity instead of enforcing an upper middle-class hierarchy to the community.”
“We must understand how this work excludes and contributes to marginalization of BIPOC stories.”
“We should dismantle this macho culture of who can work the hardest and destroy themselves. It is unnecessary and unproductive. I’m not going to do that anymore and I’m not going to train people to do that anymore!”
“I think we’ve all at one point in our early career have done the math to see what our hourly rate is for design… As of result, I felt completely hopeless… How do you even begin to negotiate when this is the norm we live in? A norm in which someone else who can afford to take the job will take the “opportunity” away from you.”
“Not designed for people to have a life—it’s a sacrifice not a job, and there is no room for family life.”
“Many in our BIPOC community have left the business because of this.”
“There’s competition to stand out and working beyond our means – demands more than the staff is physically capable of doing, especially in the Off-Broadway circuit.”
“Usually, during that last hour, you start second guess what’s already been done and you come back the next day and you realize that what you did just doesn’t work.”
“As a director, I started experimenting with not doing 10 out of 12s in 2015…Usually, I can cut at least 45 minutes to an hour off each 10 out of 12s….In general people are happier, better rested and more productive.”
“I believe that 10 out of 12 schedules is not a realistic schedule for a breastfeeding mother. This is from the perspective of a breastfeeding mom with a husband who works and the baby age two to six months. Clearly, for the single mother, the challenge will be much more… a breastfeeding mother working in a nonprofit (due to the lower fees the theatre needs to provide some sort of assistance for them. If not, the choice becomes either sacrificing a design job or her baby.”
“Some essentials and needs for a breastfeeding mom: housing within walking distance to the theatre, or a private safe space for the caretaker and her child. If the designer is local, the theatre should also provide transportation fees or support for commuting. Using public transportation late night after the production meeting is rough.”
“I accepted a tenure-track position and taught for nearly seven years at a public university with a majority BIPOC student body, and moreover, a significant percentage of underprivileged students, first-generation college students, and DACA recipients. It was saddening, then, to see students immersed in a theatre-making culture which reinforced damaging, self-sacrificing practices… unpaid sessions occurring during class hours, throughout the night… The spirit of volunteerism can be fiery and wonderful, but for many – especially for young BIPOC artists – the approach ultimately discourages engaging theatre as a meaningful profession. The exploitation begins early.”
“…The issues highlighted by the 10/12 tech rehearsal – would come into clear focus when, at age 36, I decided to enter a “soft retirement” of the robust regional theatre career I’d cultivated. It was the year my first child was born. I simply couldn’t afford to maintain a lifestyle that required my regular absence from the home for extensive day and night hours, while sharing with my wife (who also has a full-time career) the responsibilities of raising a child. The extent that I had succeeded to that point already felt, in fact, like an extension of privilege unavailable to artists with a different background.”
“I’ve seen a few designers who have survived and figured out their work, life, and monetary balance under the 10/12 tech schedule but introducing their assistant to the culture of overworking and underpay… I know too many designers who have decided not to do so and sees overworking as a form of initiation.”
“I am working as a local designer on an 10 out of 12, I just can’t do this. I can only leave my house so early in the morning to avoid traffic. And I have received push back from some directors about this who expected me to do all my notes outside of the ‘actors time’.”