Post 79 - May 29, 2020
Day 79…
Actors’ Equity Association, the union that includes actors and stage managers, of which I am a member, have published a list of principles that must be met before its members can go back to work.
There are four of them.
The epidemic must be under control, with effective testing, few new cases in the area and contact tracing.
Individuals who may be infectious can be readily identified and isolated, with frequent, regular and accurate testing with speedy results.
The way we audition, rehearse, perform and stage manage may need to change and the venues we work in may need to undergo changes in order to reduce the risk.
Efforts to control COVID-19 exposure must be collaborative, involving Equity members, employers, the union and all others involved in the production of theatre. There must be collective buy-in and ongoing evaluation and improvement of health and safety practices.
These were formulated with the help of an epidemiologist named Dr. David Michaels who was the head of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) during President Obama’s time in office.
The union has 51,000 members and I’m guessing that none of them particularly want to hear this. Most all of us who make up that 51,000-person work force are completely unemployed.
A summer theatre in the Berkshires in Massachusetts had announced plans to present a modified season this summer incorporating social distancing and mask wearing to keep the audience safe. They had not, however, presented their plans on how to keep their personnel on the other side of the footlights safe. This announcement by the union, I’m guessing, effectively quashes those plans.
These four principals do not offer specific instructions on exactly how to proceed, but they do embrace something that has been sadly lacking in much of the response to this pandemic - basic simple common sense.
We all want to get back to work - we are itching for it - but what all 51,000 of us do requires people to come together in large groups and, for the moment that presents a serious health concern.
Period.
So we are going to have to wait.
The first step in solving a problem is to identify what the problem is.
My union, which I will readily admit I don’t always agree with, has done exactly that.
They have clearly and sensibly acknowledged the reality of what we are facing.
They aren’t just telling us what we want to hear and giving us options that are massive compromises at best, and completely unsafe and unachievable at worst.
NOW, having done this, the union can start to figure out what the next steps are to try and protect the 51,000 people who are facing many more months of unemployment ahead of them.
Our national leadership has not yet taken this first basic step.
They have not identified the problem.
Not only have they not identified the problem, but they seem to be doing everything that they can to make that harder to do.
The President’s inability to identify the problem in the pandemic’s early days is now a tragic part of history.
"We do have a plan and we think it's gonna be handled very well, we've already handled it very well”
"We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It's going to be just fine."
"We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five — and those people are all recuperating successfully.”
"It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear."
As recently as a few days ago,
“Cases, numbers and deaths are going down all over the Country!”
You can’t fix a problem that you don’t admit is there.
Identifying the problem doesn’t fix it, but it clarifies what needs to be done.
There is rioting in Minneapolis.
George Floyd’s completely unnecessary death at the hands of police officers and the complete lack of official response is rightfully sparking demonstrations all over the country.
The President does not seem to understand why.
Last night he tweeted “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
The rioting is a reaction to a much deeper systemic problem.
Solve THAT problem and the rioting stops.
But you have to be able to identify what that underlying problem is, first.
Twitter, in a long overdue move, has just started to fact check the President’s tweets.
They added a link to a tweet the President put out falsely claiming that there was wide-spread mail in voting fraud.
In response to that, the President immediately whipped off an unconsidered and ill-conceived executive order designed to remove liability protections from social media platforms.
The order is unenforceable and, in any case, requires the approval of Congress who isn’t going to give it.
For their part, Twitter, says they plan on continue doing exactly what they are doing.
Twitter flagged the President’s post today as an incitement to violence.
The White House tried to retweet it on their official site and Twitter just flagged that one too.
We deserve more from our government than unthought out self-serving knee-jerk legislation.
We are in the middle of a crisis.
We are actually in the middle of several crisis.
The crisis of racism in this country is at least as dire as the crisis of COVID-19 and has been raging far longer.
Our crisis of leadership may be the worst of all.
All three have been largely ignored and all three are spreading unchecked - at the same time - with lethal consequences.
For the union members of Actors’ Equity Association, we have until June 8th to request a paper ballot if we haven’t gotten on. If you don’t have one, you can email AEA at helpdesk@vote GES.com or call 877-455-9367. The ballots must be received by AEA by June 17th to count.
This election, in the middle of this crisis matters.
Try not to choose who to vote for just based on whether or not you once did summer stock with them.
The people we elect next month are the people whom we are entrusting to lead us back to work - safely.
For the rest of the country, November is coming.
This election, in the middle of this crisis matters.
Try not to choose who to vote for just based on wanting your team to win.
The people we elect in November are the people whom we are entrusting to lead us back to work - safely.