MPowers
Well-Known Member
This has been posted on Facebook today by the president of the Actors
Equity Association:
Spiderman and Equity
by Nick Wyman on Saturday, January 1, 2011 at 11:34am
I have been very disturbed and distraught by the serious injuries
sustained by our member Chris Tierney at the December 20th performance
of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark. My thoughts and prayers have been
with him for the past ten days, and I have been in touch with him by
phone and e-mail. Chris is a study in toughness and grace. Hemingway
defined guts as =93grace under pressure.=94 Guts is what Chris Tierney
has consistently displayed both before and after his accident.
It is very upsetting to think what effect this accident might have on
Chris=92s career. (Chris is not =93a stunt man,=94 as the newspapers keep
referring to him in their churlishly patronizing way. I have nothing
against stunt men; Terry Jackson, whom I beat up in Die Hard with a
Vengeance and who was Bruce Willis=92s personal stunt man for nine
years, is one of the most impressively professional performers I have
ever met. Chris, however, is a marvelous dancer from the Hubbard
Street Troupe in Chicago who has danced in the national tour of Twyla
Tharp=92s Movin=92 Out and in the North American premiere of Dirty Dancing
in Toronto.)
That Chris is not the first actor, nor the second , but rather the
fourth to be injured on Spiderman is frustrating and maddening and, to
some, infuriating. I love the passion that has been shown by Equity
actors in defense of our fellow members; I love their insistence that
we have to be taken care of and protected. What I do not love is
that, in their concern and outrage and frustration =96all of which I
share--, they have turned their fury on the one party that has done
and is doing the most to protect their fellow actors: our union.
=93Why is Equity allowing this to happen?!=94 =93Why doesn=92t Equity prev=
ent
this?=94 =93Why doesn=92t Equity shut the show down?=94
Before a Broadway show goes into production, Equity staff are poring
over the script, looking for possible risk elements such as raked
stages, smoke and haze, stunts, firearms, unusual or overly-demanding
choreography. Equity meets with directors, designers, producers to
eliminate or reduce the dangers and to develop safety protocols.
Equity staff attends the final rehearsal room run-through and they are
a frequent presence at tech rehearsals, seeking to ensure that all
possible steps are taken to protect the actors. In the case of
<span>Spiderman</span>, our staff spent so much time at the Foxwoods
Theatre during rehearsals, I=92m surprised the producers didn=92t charge
them rent. I have no idea how many potential problems staff cleared
up or how many accidents-in-waiting they forestalled; I just know they
were and are a powerful force for our protection and without them, the
news from the Foxwoods Theater might have been much worse.
Our staff brings decades of judgment and experience to bear in
assessing potentially risky situations, and they use many different
tactics to convince, cajole, pressure the producers, design team,
director, etc. to make the changes necessary to protect the actor.
Shows are consistently becoming bigger, more complex, more
technological (witness Spiderman); and our staff is keeping pace with
these expanding boundaries of creativity and monitoring them to
protect our members. Working with OSHA, the Department of Labor and
IATSE Local 1, we have insisted on further safety protocols, backups,
fail-safes, redundancies over at the Foxwoods Theater.
I understand the wish to point fingers, to find someone who is
culpable. (It was a classic pastime in my family of origin whenever
anything went wrong.) The more useful, productive exercise is to
discover what we can do to improve things, to prevent a recurrence of
this accident. This is what our staff has been doing. Our staff logs
every accident that occurs during the course of a Broadway show.
This enables AEA to discern any patterns in injuries: is it
consistently the same track in the show? The same production number?
The same special effect? The same location in a theater? The AEA
staff uses this information to develop future contract proposals, but
also to protect the current performers.
Part of the joy of live theatre =96 for both the audience and the
performers =96 is its immediacy and its vitality. A =93boy in the bubble=
=94
strategy of taking everything down to half speed, of wrapping everyone
and everything in cotton wool, obviously will not work. Live theatre,
exciting theatre involves risk. Mistakes will happen: a slip, a
stumble, a hesitation, a moment=92s inattention. Our staff is committed
to doing whatever it possibly can to protect our members and to
minimize the danger and the risk. =93Safe and sanitary=94 matters to
them. YOU matter to them. I have seen them become teary-eyed
recalling a stage injury, excoriating themselves for not having come
up with some way of preventing it. As passionately as those of you
feel who were savaging Equity for not stopping the show or at least
stopping the injuries, that=92s how passionately our staff feels about
making sure our members are safe and supported and able to give the
best of themselves onstage without fear. So yes, raise a cry about
the need to protect our actors and prevent further injuries, but know
that you are raising that cry alongside AEA and its hardworking staff.
Equity Association:
Spiderman and Equity
by Nick Wyman on Saturday, January 1, 2011 at 11:34am
I have been very disturbed and distraught by the serious injuries
sustained by our member Chris Tierney at the December 20th performance
of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark. My thoughts and prayers have been
with him for the past ten days, and I have been in touch with him by
phone and e-mail. Chris is a study in toughness and grace. Hemingway
defined guts as =93grace under pressure.=94 Guts is what Chris Tierney
has consistently displayed both before and after his accident.
It is very upsetting to think what effect this accident might have on
Chris=92s career. (Chris is not =93a stunt man,=94 as the newspapers keep
referring to him in their churlishly patronizing way. I have nothing
against stunt men; Terry Jackson, whom I beat up in Die Hard with a
Vengeance and who was Bruce Willis=92s personal stunt man for nine
years, is one of the most impressively professional performers I have
ever met. Chris, however, is a marvelous dancer from the Hubbard
Street Troupe in Chicago who has danced in the national tour of Twyla
Tharp=92s Movin=92 Out and in the North American premiere of Dirty Dancing
in Toronto.)
That Chris is not the first actor, nor the second , but rather the
fourth to be injured on Spiderman is frustrating and maddening and, to
some, infuriating. I love the passion that has been shown by Equity
actors in defense of our fellow members; I love their insistence that
we have to be taken care of and protected. What I do not love is
that, in their concern and outrage and frustration =96all of which I
share--, they have turned their fury on the one party that has done
and is doing the most to protect their fellow actors: our union.
=93Why is Equity allowing this to happen?!=94 =93Why doesn=92t Equity prev=
ent
this?=94 =93Why doesn=92t Equity shut the show down?=94
Before a Broadway show goes into production, Equity staff are poring
over the script, looking for possible risk elements such as raked
stages, smoke and haze, stunts, firearms, unusual or overly-demanding
choreography. Equity meets with directors, designers, producers to
eliminate or reduce the dangers and to develop safety protocols.
Equity staff attends the final rehearsal room run-through and they are
a frequent presence at tech rehearsals, seeking to ensure that all
possible steps are taken to protect the actors. In the case of
<span>Spiderman</span>, our staff spent so much time at the Foxwoods
Theatre during rehearsals, I=92m surprised the producers didn=92t charge
them rent. I have no idea how many potential problems staff cleared
up or how many accidents-in-waiting they forestalled; I just know they
were and are a powerful force for our protection and without them, the
news from the Foxwoods Theater might have been much worse.
Our staff brings decades of judgment and experience to bear in
assessing potentially risky situations, and they use many different
tactics to convince, cajole, pressure the producers, design team,
director, etc. to make the changes necessary to protect the actor.
Shows are consistently becoming bigger, more complex, more
technological (witness Spiderman); and our staff is keeping pace with
these expanding boundaries of creativity and monitoring them to
protect our members. Working with OSHA, the Department of Labor and
IATSE Local 1, we have insisted on further safety protocols, backups,
fail-safes, redundancies over at the Foxwoods Theater.
I understand the wish to point fingers, to find someone who is
culpable. (It was a classic pastime in my family of origin whenever
anything went wrong.) The more useful, productive exercise is to
discover what we can do to improve things, to prevent a recurrence of
this accident. This is what our staff has been doing. Our staff logs
every accident that occurs during the course of a Broadway show.
This enables AEA to discern any patterns in injuries: is it
consistently the same track in the show? The same production number?
The same special effect? The same location in a theater? The AEA
staff uses this information to develop future contract proposals, but
also to protect the current performers.
Part of the joy of live theatre =96 for both the audience and the
performers =96 is its immediacy and its vitality. A =93boy in the bubble=
=94
strategy of taking everything down to half speed, of wrapping everyone
and everything in cotton wool, obviously will not work. Live theatre,
exciting theatre involves risk. Mistakes will happen: a slip, a
stumble, a hesitation, a moment=92s inattention. Our staff is committed
to doing whatever it possibly can to protect our members and to
minimize the danger and the risk. =93Safe and sanitary=94 matters to
them. YOU matter to them. I have seen them become teary-eyed
recalling a stage injury, excoriating themselves for not having come
up with some way of preventing it. As passionately as those of you
feel who were savaging Equity for not stopping the show or at least
stopping the injuries, that=92s how passionately our staff feels about
making sure our members are safe and supported and able to give the
best of themselves onstage without fear. So yes, raise a cry about
the need to protect our actors and prevent further injuries, but know
that you are raising that cry alongside AEA and its hardworking staff.
