AMAZING GRACE National Tour?! — Page 2

I’ve toured with non-Eq shows in the past (not as an actor, so I was paid considerably more since other departments/unions actually look out for their members) and I couldn’t understand how the actors did what they did. This schedule is far worse than anything I’ve ever seen and I feel so awful for the crew in particular who probably won’t get any sleep at all (or have time to even shower) with the load-ins and load-outs.

You're right that there are definitely some ridiculous travel days (they go from San Bernardino to Alto, NM on back to back days? It's over 800 miles so I hope their flight isn't canceled), but sometimes these tours are so bare bones that they do not travel with any crew whatsoever beyond a company manager, stage manager, and *maybe* a TD. All other crew (stagehands, wig/hair, makeup, day work, load-in/out) are picked up locally and become a documented expense that the theatres must cover, so at least they'll be well rested?

Tours like these will continue to happen as long as there are theatres that will pay for them, actors who agree to perform in them, and producers/production companies who are willing to try and make a quick buck at the expense of their performers' well being. On the flip side, you can say these tours allow smaller secondary or tertiary towns to bring in shows that they never would have otherwise been able to afford or present

newintown said: ""I’ve toured with non-Eq shows in the past ... and I couldn’t understand how the actors did what they did."

It's called "being desperate to be an actor." And some of them enjoy it enormously."

I didn’t ask why, I asked how. It takes a great deal out of you to perform this much, and many inexperienced performers don’t know how to sustain eight shows a week, let alone seven days in a row for over a month at a time. I understand this is a great opportunity for an actor to say they were on the first national tour (is that what we’re calling this?) of a show. But this is a barbaric schedule. This is why there’s that #AskIfItsEquity movement. To me, it’s never been about the quality of performances but about the treatment of the performers and fair wages.

I think the how and the why are the same thing here. I remember being right out of college, and working with "indestructible" young actors who could belt high Bs and dance The Spanish Panic all day long and never feel the effects any more than a slight huskiness in the morning. Youth, enthusiasm, adrenaline, etc. It's after we hit 30 that we start to wonder how we did all that at all.

Updated On: 10/25/17 at 12:46 PM

$450/week? Seriously? It's ironic that a show about the evils of slavery is paying such a pittance for this hellish schedule. I wouldn't have accepted that 25 years ago.

The tour is still happening, it's currently in rehearsals.