Meetings Agenda and Notes From the 'Shirt Before the Shirt Meeting'

*Edit - It has become clear that using a Jersey Shore reference, 'shirt before the shirt', was unclear and... stupid. The idea behind the title was to indicate the meeting was about setting an agenda for a larger forum. Message received - No more Jersey Shore references. Lol.

Meeting Recap - This meeting was held at Timeline Theatre on Monday July 16th, from 7pm-10:30pm. It ran over 30 minutes. Big thanks to Maggie Fullilove Nugent and Timeline Theatre for the use of venue!

CLICK HERE to view the Agenda

CLICK HERE to view the Notes/Community Response

Aaron Shapiro read the following statement after the introductions:

"Welcome to the shirt before the shirt meeting. The original goal of this meeting was to set an agenda, possibly outline a format, and gather input to make a town hall discussion of these issues productive, transparent, and pragmatic. 

Most of the issues noted in the survey are, well, complicated. They intertwine and often are unable to be separated. Time, transparency, and good-faith discussion will all be our friends as we seek to untangle these issues and hopefully advance goals that are mutually beneficial to both freelancers and producers. 

We all need to acknowledge that there are many many many perspectives, and that we want to be inclusive with our discussion. Bluntly, there WILL BE disagreements. It is important to establish that HOW we disagree should still be rooted in civility. I strongly advise that a rule-of-thumb should be to challenge ideas with ideas, and avoid attacking people or theatre companies personally. 

I believe we can find a majority consensus that we live in a time where the art of storytelling is as important as it has ever been. Chicago has had an important and rich history of creating theatre that is unique and cutting edge. We have before us a unique and daunting task of contributing to that history. 

Make no mistake, the discussions we are about to have and the progress we hope to achieve is like extracting honey from a wild bee-hive. It seems likely that some stinging will occur, and we should be sensitive to the risks, and be patient but persistent.

The business of theatre in Chicago has such great variations; from the tiniest storefront to the largest producing entities; non-profit and for profit; mission-related constraints and competitive advantages, relationships with established unions such as AEA, Local 2, USA, under the umbrella of IATSE; various forms of arts funding and dependability of that funding; seasonal considerations; various states of board involvement, various methods of budgeting and strategic planning and of course various access to important resources. Also related are entities on the outskirts; we also have scene shops, rental houses, colleges, labor brokers, costume shops, corporate work, film and tv, etc.

With all this nuance, it’s hard to have a universal conversation about wages or work conditions or equity or fairness because… well… it’s more complicated and not that much is seemingly universal.

Theatre companies close with regularity in Chicago. There is often no guarantee for many producing entities that the organization can survive to produce their next show unless they meet ticket sales goals for their current one. This reality can be beyond stressful for those administrators, and they are often faced with incredibly hard decisions. Obviously these administrators strive for growth and sustainability… but that path is incredibly difficult and often painful. Mostly these administrators act heroically on behalf of their organization; absorbing personal pay cuts, devoting extra time to right the ship, and continue to wear multiple hats. Even larger more ‘sustainable’ producing entities are often operating largely in the red. 

The business of Chicago theatre is fragile. 

I personally started freelancing in Chicago around 2006 and I largely took for granted that there was a Chicago-wide system in place for how things worked with overhire labor. I was open an interested in learning new skills, willing to do anything that would pay me anything so I could feel like a professional... and when someone was willing to hire and teach me electrician skills I jumped at the opportunity. Then it was audio and then carpentry. People had their coveted email lists of carpenters, electricians, stitchers, etc… and occasionally someone would forget to bcc people; their lists were copy and pasted. When I moved up into production management I recycled the same lists until I had several dependable folks I could usually rely upon. The more companies I freelance production managed with, the more I expanded my lists to include stage managers, scenic artists, wig specialists, designers, costume technicians etc.  But then came September or April/May and my ‘dependables’ were all booked… and the need to replenish with new blood. 

Along the way, I started to have many conversations about the very issues we are currently discussing. Mostly on our 15 minute breaks. And it turned out that many many folks were also having these conversations. The problem is that they usually just ended without the ability to progress any of them.

I ultimately started the Facebook group as a different way of reaching out to overhire candidates and tried to get a few others to combine our lists. Not very many were interested in sharing their coveted lists. It took about 6 months to get any traction what-so-ever. Once it did though, and I got a few others to post their gigs in addition to mine, I thought it would be interesting to set a site minimum. And a series of rules that I personally wanted to see executed… mostly derived from my personal experience working overhire calls. Once the group hit around 300 members I asked a few questions to the group for discussion topics… with not a ton of response. There was a period of about 60 days where the group doubled in size to about 600 members and I had no idea who was being invited to the group. Once membership was around 750... the first large scale meaningful discussions started to happen.

I always kind of sensed there was more intrinsic value to the Facebook group then being just a call board. It was really the first forum that gave any kind of voice to a frustrated community of overhire technicians. There was no centralized place to have this conversation aside from the 15min break. It further became clear that this conversation was being had by all kinds of Chicago Theatre freelancers, not just the overhire community; the costume community, designers, etc. Stagnant wages, trying to pay rent, etc. 

There is an entire EX- ChicagoTheatre community that left due to burn out. And a lot are rightfully jaded.

Just as I previously mentioned that the Business of Chicago Theatre is fragile… so is the community of freelancers that make it run. 

Lastly, there is an urgency to this discussion, as the longer it is impossible to make a living in our community, the longer it will be where only the privileged can afford to be apart of it.  

The time has come to have a conversation, any conversation. But a BIG conversation. A MESSY conversation. I personally believe we are ready to have this conversation with DIGNITY and CIVILITY. We are smart enough and empathetic enough to see each others’ perspectives. Let honesty and transparency and discussion be the catalysts!"