“As a parent of very young children, the rehearsal and tech schedule is the one of the main reasons why I am not pursuing my career at this time.”
“As a parent of very young children, the rehearsal and tech schedule is the one of the main reasons why I am not pursuing my career at this time.”
“My first tech weeks back post-baby were rough. Teching while running on very little sleep and also having to pump milk every three hours was terrible. The two 10/12s where I was in the building from roughly 9am – 1am after my first baby almost broke me.”
“With my second baby, I thought I was prepared, but once tech started my supply started dropping just as my daughter hit a growth spurt and wanted to eat, eat, eat. She went through my entire built up milk supply at home in the first two days of tech. I vividly remember sobbing in the theatre lobby with my husband telling him he needed to go buy formula because I just couldn’t pump enough in the upcoming 10/12s to feed our baby. Honestly, I have ZERO problem giving my kids formula – they both had it – it was just in that moment feeling like I was failing at being a mom, a woman, and a stage manager.”
“Working in this industry already means that your family structure is going to be non traditional…but why do we continue to promote these schedules that make having a family feel almost like a burden? I had the extreme privilege to have a parent be able to come and watch my kids during tech, but I thought often of other artist parents who are forced to step away from the business until their children are older because our system is not built for all.”
“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 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.”
“It is a grueling schedule that really comes at a cost both creatively and personally…It got to the point where I was missing so much of my kids growing up. I was gone from my wife and kids for 40 weeks out of the year. Even when I was doing a show in town, I wasn’t really ‘home'”
“As a Production Stage Manager and Mother of 7-year old twins, 10/12s are killing me. I wish theaters would either reduce these tech hours or provide robust childcare.”
“I can’t take my family to doctors’ appointments, therapy, hospital visits – not to mention just needing to be there for them consistently as a mom and a daughter.”
“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’.”
“10 out of 12s from the perspective of a breastfeeding mom. I was not given a place to pump. I would have to do it in the stall of the public bathroom. The building was multi-use – so I had to put up with hearing patrons of other events complain about me taking so much time in the stall. It was a large restroom with multiple stalls and there were other bathrooms in the building.”
“Basically, my break consisted of me going to bathroom and pumping. Sometimes I would have to cut the pumping short to be able to pack everything up, get the milk to the backstage fridge, and then make it back to the table in time. I understand I should have been happy to have the job.”