It’s a long one this, apologies. But please do read and share.
As with I’m sure so many other people around the world, I sat down to watch Hamilton on Disney+ a couple of nights ago. I’ve been attempting to see it for years, and never managed to get the time, tickets, or be in a location where it’s playing and have everything line up to enable me to give it a watch. I designed a show on Broadway a couple of years ago in the Theatre next door. My Chief Electrician on that was the indefatigable Jimmy Fedigan (I genuinely couldn’t do a New York gig without him!), who is coincidentally, also the chief for Hamilton. He offered me an opportunity to go and see it, but as ever, the production I was working on took over my life and time out of my Theatre was a sufficient rarity that I failed to even make it to the Stage Door of the Richard Rogers Theatre where the show resides in NYC.
I’m never entirely satisfied watching a Stage Show as a Movie. Whether it’s a Theatrical or Concert Production, that sense of shared experience is lost completely. The smells, the expectant buzz that ripples through an auditorium as the House Lights dim, the scream in the case of a concert as the Intro kicks off and we kill the House Lights. There’s a sense of missing out.
For sure, Hamilton is a stunning production. Obviously, I was watching the Lighting (Howell Binkley, it’s a master-class in Stage Lighting Design for the Theatre – Beautifully lit and the timing is fantastic – Jimmy – I have questions…) but every aspect of it was stunning. I was particularly taken by the Set (David Korins), the Costumes (Paul Tazewell), and the Choreography (Andy Blankenbuehler). Sadly in this format, I cant speak to the Sound Design, but I am assured that it is stunning.
Obviously, beyond those people, there are other members of the creative team (available here https://www.broadwayworld.com/shows/creative.php… ) as well as the many Cast Members, Designers Associates and Assistants, Stage Managers, Board Operators, Wardrobe Staff, Musicians, Ushers, Front of House Staff, Building Team, Sound Engineers, Sound Techs, Automation Operators, Carpenters, Ticketing Staff, Producers, Directors (Directed by Thomas Kail, but there’ll be a resident director (or more) too), Security, Wigs people, Riggers, Flying Crew, a veritable backstage town of people that make the show run and make sure that it looks the same on the night that you see it as it did on opening night. I’m certain I’ve missed many more jobs too.
Beyond the immediate vicinity of the Theatre, Arena, Stadium, or Club, there are myriad other people involved. Lighting and Sound rental houses, and their teams that prepare and maintain the Equipment, Scenic Fabricators and their welders, carpenters, electronics, and integration teams. The Seamstresses, Cobblers, and Wig Makers that make the costumes. The marketing teams, the ticketing companies, the lawyers that deal with the contracts, the transport companies that move the show around the country or world on tour before it gets its residency on Broadway or the West End (in the case of a Theatrical Production).
There’s a trickle-down too. You don’t just go to a Theatre, or to a Gig, do you? You probably use Public Transport, which means you can have a Drink. Maybe you’ll go for a Meal beforehand, perhaps you’ll, and so the nearby Pub’s get some business, you buy a Program (Printing Company), maybe a new outfit (Clothes Store), maybe you’ll hit up a nearby pub after the show and make a night of it, maybe spend the whole weekend in town so you’ll be needing a hotel. The cast and crew need to eat. So, the café’s and pubs near the theatre will do a roaring trade in coffee and snacks during a production period and as the shows settle into their run just from the efforts of those people (and the cast and crew can probably drink the local dry a couple of times a week!)
For all of those people. Myself included, our lives have been put on hold. We aren't furloughed. We are freelance. If we are not at work. We are not earning money. Let that sink in.
The press and media have of course latched on to the celebrities asking for support, and it’s great to see them raising their voices on behalf of all of us much, much lower down the food chain, but I wonder how many of the public will switch off as Multi-Millionaire Paul McCartney tells them that the Live Production industry needs help?
Let’s be clear, it isn’t Paul McCartney asking for help for himself. He’s asking on behalf of people like us. People who planned, financially, for the normally slow December to March period in our business, only to then see 100% of our annual income disappear just as we were looking forward to getting back to work, seeing our friends, making some money, and delivering the spectacle that we deliver day in, day out, in the hope that we can bring some joy and enrichment into the lives of the general public that come to see our work.
To give some perspective. A freelance Lighting Technician in UK Concert Touring probably charges around £200 to £250 a day. From that, they have to buy their tools, insurance, cover sick days, pay their mortgage, pay their taxes and National Insurance (in the UK), and of course, whilst that looks like a nice amount of cash on the surface, consider that their ‘day’ may be from 6:00am through until 01:00 am the following morning. That’s £13 an hour at £250 a day. Take from that the governments chunk of change, and it’s considerably less. Of course, they can’t work 365 days a year either.
Let’s be incredibly generous and assume that they can work a standard working year with a month’s holiday, and no evenings and weekends. That was roughly 261 days in 2019, so 231 with a month’s holiday. That’s £57k a year. Nobody works that many days. We have already established that the first three months of the year are generally considered to be a non-starter. So that leaves 171 days. That’s £42,750.00. The yearly take home from that for 2020/2021 is roughly £32,710.00 not taking into account any tax credits. Throw in maybe £3,000 a year for tools, insurances, software licenses etc and that’s £29,710.00 a year. If you then factor in the rainy days for the first three months of the next year, that leaves you with £22,283.00 which is £2,475.00 a month (9 months based on 3 months saved from the previous year). I’d imagine there are rent or mortgage payments on that, so let's hazard a guess at £1,000.00 a month, which would leave £1,475.00 a month for the bills, groceries, home improvements, stuff for the kids, maybe a vacation, and all of the other crap that adds up to modern life’s outgoings, and of course assumes that they are never, ever, ill enough to need time off of work.
Now. Take all of that income away, with no notice, and with no indication as to when you might be able to start earning any of it again. Down that road lies despair, desperation, a good few existential crises, and god knows what level of Mental. Health. Damage.
Consider then that literally thousands of dedicated, skilled, talented, Creatives and Technicians, Performers and Producers, have been living through exactly this scenario since March. Live music alone generates over £4bn for the UK Government on an annual basis, throw in the creative industries at large and it's over £11bn. That’s considerably more than Premiere League Football.
Every single TV Show, Movie, Stage Show, Concert, Album, Artwork, Book, that you see / listen to / read / look at is generated by people that work in the creative arts. Every piece of furniture you use is designed by someone. A creative. The British Government has allowed many of us to slip through the cracks. I urge each and every one of you to support the Arts when we can come back, and speed us towards returning by wearing a mask when you’re in public and avoid going out when you possibly can.
Do what you can to let us get back to entertaining you as soon as we can (wear a mask, stay indoors when you can, etc), and write to your MP to ask them what the plan is. Those of us that work backstage do it because we don’t want to be in the limelight, that’s the job of the artists. What makes us tick is the buzz that YOU get from seeing our work, whether you know it or not.
Peace and Love
Smiffy