Dear Non-Equity Diary...

[broadwayhoofer]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 8:08am

So is it a new Equity rule that monitors will no longer honor the Unofficial non-eq signup sheet? I was at the Spring Awakening EPA yesterday. Thankfully, they saw non-eq's due to the fact it was a 10-6pm audition, also, I didn't really see a big equity turn out. Anyway, I was literally shocked by the lack of integrity that some auditionees had. A few friends and I waited at Ripley Griere since 6am and were a few of the first people sign in on the non-eq sheet. By 9:30ish the studio actually opened and we were all allowed to enter, all the non-eq's decided to line up in the order we had signed up in. Good. That's fair. Cut to the monitor arriving, crumpling up the sheet, and saying we all need to line up to sign in to the official sheet. Non-eq's running to the table totally out of the order in which they arrive. Two little sh*ts who arrived way after me end up in front of me. Monitor doesn't seem to give a flying f*ck. Uh. Still ended up retaining a spot that was close to my original spot on the unofficial sheet, but that's not to say I didn't have to put up a fight. It was kind of embarrassing I had to literally argue with people to save my spot. Yikes. I know we are second class citizens in an Equity call, but why isn't it enforced by the monitor to make sure things are handled more orderly and fairly. It's not like their job is that hard that they can't work out situations like this in two minutes.

Anyone else have recent horror stories about rude actors?
Updated On: 8/18/09 at 08:08 AM

[snowskittle]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 9:22am

Seems like an even ruder monitor. I wonder how they justify that.

[singtopher]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 9:26am

Equity does not honor any un-official lists. That has been the rule for quite some time now. It is not the monitors job to make sure the non-equity people play fair. Thats life. Usually non-equity actors are more civilized than what you described, but i'm not surprised folks were rather immature given the show.

[snowskittle]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 9:36am

I'm sure they're not required to honor them but you'd think common courtesy might (?) prevail in this circumstance.

[broadwayhoofer]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 10:41am

What was more shocking is that you'd expect that these rude ones were teenagers (granted the show we were auditioning for) but nope, I could clearly tell most of us were college students, and most a few years older than me. The monitor was not rude at all, but he clearly saw that we were lined up in order before making us sign in to the official list. He saw people "cheating" to the front. I mean, I guess that's that. They're not required to say something, but come on, how hard is your job that you can't?

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 10:44am

Didn't the non-union performers in the queue know there would be an official list for them to use?

As pointed out, this is by no means a new rule. And if you're going to a union audition, you should know the union rules in advance.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 11:13am

Slightly unrelated, but did a lot of non-eq show up? I'm going to the ECC tomorrow and am just trying to plan.

[BlueWindSadness]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 11:21am

dancingthrulife, I am also thinking about going tomorrow to the ECC....hoping to get there by about 7am

I was also wondering how many non-eq signed up/ was seen yesterday.....

[BlueWindSadness]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 1:33pm

also I just saw that the ECC is at Chelsea Studios tomorrow NOT Ripley Grier.....according to the playbill.com listing

http://www.playbill.com/jobs/find/job_detail/26659.html

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 2:24pm

I checked the equity website and it says the same thing.

[ticenewyorkcity]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 2:38pm

ripley GRIER opened well before nine thirty am. it was more like eight thirty am...actually

and wouldn't you rather have a later audition anyway? whats the point in being seen quickly and so early in the day without being able to warm up.

this is how it goes. it's the business.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 2:56pm

I think the point is that the OP got there early in the morning to sign up for the best audition time (maybe later in the day, who knows) and ended up with a different time because of the chaos.

[BlueWindSadness]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 3:14pm

dancingthrulife is right, the AEA website says Chelsea Studios too....

Just to give people a heads up, i just assumed it was at Ripley Grier because the EPA were there yesterday, but I was wrong, and good thing I checked!

Does anyone have an idea of what time is reasonable to get there...I live in Midtown, so I can get there within like 15-20 mins, I'm not really too picky about an audition time...