Baltimore Center Stage artistic director Stephanie Ybarra said it was a difficult time to be at the theater.
Sydney J. Allen for NPR
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Baltimore Center Stage artistic director Stephanie Ybarra said it was a difficult time to be at the theater.
Sydney J. Allen for NPR
Recently, Baltimore Center Stage had to cancel its first preview of the season. There was a problem with the giant moon in the background and the lights didn’t arrive in time for a thorough inspection. For art director Stephanie Ybarra, it’s ultimately a matter of safety.
“The show didn’t go as planned,” Ybarra said. “And that’s because we don’t feel like it’s the duty to do.”
Ybarra said it’s been a tough time being at the Center Stage. Things are happening more slowly because there is revenue around the theater – from the scene store to the marketing department.
“When we planned this gig almost a year ago, we didn’t know what the labor market would be like or what our team would be like,” Ybarra said. “And the transfer of almost all of our production in the last few months has put a tremendous amount of pressure on our workers.”
The Baltimore Center Stage in Maryland recently had to cancel its first preview of the season.
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Emily Bogle / NPR
The Baltimore Center Stage in Maryland recently had to cancel its first preview of the season.
Emily Bogle / NPR
It takes a large team of people to get a show at a theater in the area. You need carpenters, lighting designers, costumes and more. Time can be long and salary is not high. It is usually a work of love. But the pandemic shutdown forced theater workers to ask if the theater would love them back.
Rachael Erichsen, props manager at Center Stage, said: “Many people realize that their identity doesn’t disappear when they leave the theater for a year. “And once you realize that, then you start to consider those options – is the long, stressful time worth it for me?”
Across the country, regional theaters like Central Stage are trying to appeal to those sizes to the benefit of theaters by making big changes. Art directors are looking at everything from increased variety backstage and stage and better health coverage, to childcare supplements for parents and shorter workweeks than.
Change the scope of a part
At Central Stage, where a regular season can offer six shows, there will be four in the 2022-2023 season. Ybarra said she looked at the labor market and budget and concluded that, especially with post-pandemic closures, theater simply couldn’t do as much. This decision has received a lot of feedback with people asking: Why not?
For Erichsen, who is in her sixth season at Center Stage, the move challenges the rising and brooding culture that she and so many theater staff members have formed.
Rachael Erichsen is the props manager at Central Stage. She wondered if the long hours and highly stressful situations in the theater industry were worth it.
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Rachael Erichsen is the props manager at Central Stage. She wondered if the long hours and highly stressful situations in the theater industry were worth it.
Sydney J. Allen for NPR
“It’s a transition from a certain way of thinking, to a certain high,” she said. “You get the euphoric energy of creation-just-in-time.”
She said she “realized that might not be a healthy work model that we’ve all been trained in and ingrained in.” It’s a really exciting process, she says, “to retrain our brains, to retrain our reward circuits to appreciate slow, steady creative energy vs. Exciting creativity.”
No more 10 out of 12 seconds
After some prompts from We See You White American Theater movement, Central Stage joins several other theaters committed to eliminating the so-called “10 out of 12” practice. That’s shorthand for the hours the theater staff put out. It refers to a rule that actors must not work more than 10 hours in 12 hours a day. But once the actors were done, the crew had to take notes and deal with the issues that didn’t work. So behind-the-scenes workdays can stretch to 14 hours, 16 hours, if not more. And those last hours always seem to take up the most time.
“It’s also the least productive part of the day,” said Nathan Scheifele, master craftsman at Center Stage, who is on season 19. “I would run into the problem that sometimes the City of Baltimore light rail stops running at a certain point. And I have to find a way home after that.”
Center Stage moved into the eighth of 10 working days, drawing praise from Lindsay Jones, a New York City-based theater and film composer and sound designer and a member of the team. member of the group No more 10 out of 12 seconds.
He said: “I think Center Stage has really shown itself as a leader in changing the way they work to create a more fair and equal working environment.
Costumes are on display at the Central Stage.
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Costumes are on display at the Central Stage.
Sydney J. Allen for NPR
In Jones’ view, theater is an industry that tends to work on autopilot and avoid any self-reflection. Jones says that when a place like Central Stage makes such a move, it makes a bigger difference.
“I believe their stance has really encouraged others to stop and think about what they’ve been doing in their practice and whether they can make those changes,” he said. .
Theater is often a labor of love. But you can’t pay your bills in love
When Ybarra first came to Center Stage, her first goal was to raise compensation. Low pay is something she heard from her employees then and is still hearing about now.
“We’re still playing catch-up and trying to keep up,” she said.
Getting everyone paid more and getting everyone paid fairly is tough as ticket sales and memberships drop. But for Ybarra, the problem is that the theater must be held accountable to its own merits. For example, Ybarra ended her theater internship. While the theater pays weekly wages and provides housing for its interns, Ybarra still considers it exploitative.
“We have people in the building talking about how they can’t afford groceries. They’ll rely on leftovers from a board meeting. That’s how they feed themselves. And that’s exploitation. peeling,” she said.
Hear enough heads of nonprofits talk about value and very easily excitable if nothing happens. But Bridgette Burton, an art production associate who has worked at several theaters in the area, noticed something different at Center Stage.
“Because they’re watching,” she said.
Bridgette Burton is an art production associate at Center Stage and has worked at several theaters in the area.
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Bridgette Burton is an art production associate at Center Stage and has worked at several theaters in the area.
Sydney J. Allen for NPR
Burton began working in January 2021, first on contract, then full-time. She gets a raise after each evaluation. And in addition to the raise, she says the company is also very transparent about its finances and budget.
“We can see the budget and know what’s going to go into it. We had a staff meeting today and had a section on financial transparency, and that has never been the case in other places. other that I’ve been to,” she said.
For workers like Burton and Erichsen, all of these changes are reason enough to stay. And also have fun doing theater. On the opening night of Our town, the large moon in the background was active. It’s faint nostalgia that shows time has passed.
This little technological miracle – in fact, every aspect of production – requires a lot of different people with different backgrounds and skills to work together. For Ybarra, it was a draw.
“The sense of belonging that we feel when we make the theater? It can’t be beat. And I want as many people to experience that as possible,” she said.
Stephanie Ybarra (left), Bridgette Burton and Rachael Erichsen stand on stage.
Sydney J. Allen for NPR
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Stephanie Ybarra (left), Bridgette Burton and Rachael Erichsen stand on stage.
Sydney J. Allen for NPR
