Threaded Order Chronological Order
| Resident Acting Companies - Questions | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 11:59 am EDT 06/21/18 | |
| In reply to: The Resident Acting Company (RAC), drawn from the former Pearl troupe, emerges with staged reading of "The Big Night" June 25 - Official_Press_Release 05:39 pm EDT 06/19/18 | |
|
|
|
| I'm genuinely curious about the logistics of a resident acting company (not THIS company in particular, but in general). The impression that I get is that the company hires an ensemble of actors for a set period of time and those actors would be paid a straight salary for the duration of the contract, regardless of the size of their role in any given production and even if there is no role for them in any given production. Does this sound right? So how does that work financially? On one hand, I see the value in knowing that your labor costs (for the actors, anyway) are fixed for the entire contract period, but I would think that an arrangement like that could hamstring a company and not allow it to be nimble enough to scale back if need be. And you'd have to be so careful in choosing plays that will allow for roles for most, if not all, of your ensemble every single time, so that you're not paying someone who's not working. So I would think that you wouldn't be able to do, for example, THE SEAGULL and WAITING FOR GODOT in the same season. And, for the actors, would a resident company job like this pay enough to not have to seek other income? With an active company, I could see it almost being a summer stock situation with the actors performing one show while rehearsing another and that doesn't seem to allow much time to work another job. And how do benefits come into it? I assume that any contract via AEA would cover health benefits, vacation time, sick time, etc., but would, for example, a year's contract in a resident company be different from a year's contract in a Broadway show (aside from pay scale, etc.)? |
|
| reply to this message |
| re: Resident Acting Companies - Questions | |
| Posted by: mikem 09:27 pm EDT 06/21/18 | |
| In reply to: Resident Acting Companies - Questions - JereNYC 11:59 am EDT 06/21/18 | |
|
|
|
| Is there any resident acting company in the US currently doing this? I would agree that it sounds financially tricky. One of the big theaters here has a pseudo-resident acting troupe from whom they draw many of their actors, which they call an "incubator" for new works. They do readings, workshops, etc, beyond the big shows that they do. I think they have some kind of mechanism to pay some kind of stipend, but I think the pay for those who aren't in the current big show is pretty low. | |
| reply to this message |
| re: Resident Acting Companies - Questions | |
| Posted by: ryhog 09:58 am EDT 06/22/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Resident Acting Companies - Questions - mikem 09:27 pm EDT 06/21/18 | |
|
|
|
| Some regional theatres have resident actors signed to season contracts. Another model is the theatre+school or education component wherein the actors have non-acting functions included in their compensation to make it a (presumably not that high-paying) full time undertaking. I don't think the Pearl ever pretended to be a full time year round gig. In NYC, the other model is, I think, still (perhaps in some variation) involved at Atlantic, if nowhere else. | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: Resident Acting Companies - Questions | |
| Posted by: whereismikeyfl 07:58 am EDT 06/22/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Resident Acting Companies - Questions - mikem 09:27 pm EDT 06/21/18 | |
|
|
|
| Even members of the Pearl's "resident acting company" were only paid for the productions they were in. | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
Time to render: 0.010809 seconds.