Equity: Year One by / Valerie Weak

I’ve been a member of Actor’s Equity for about a year and a half now. And when I’m out and about in the theatre community, I’ll be catching up with friends and someone will usually say, “You know, I’m about to have to join, so how’s it going for you?”

I feel like I never have enough time in these casual situations to give a full answer. I usually say something like, “You know, it’s going,” and leave it at that.

The full answer would be something more like this:

It’s been fantastic to reach this career milestone. I was thrilled to get my card in the mail and get applause from my peers when I was introduced as a new member at an Equity meeting, and it was really cool to have an asterisk next to my name in a program—finally. It’s really exciting to know that when I act I get paid for it, and I have the opportunity to get health insurance and a pension because of my acting.

At the same time, though, it sucks. It totally sucks. Since joining Equity, I’ve worked on five staged readings and no full productions. Yes, I’ve done indie films and booked industrial work through my agent, but this is the longest I’ve gone without doing a show since I started doing community theatre as a young person. I’m doing auditions left and right (46 theatre auditions between September 2010 and February 2012, or roughly an audition every 12 days), but have gotten no jobs from those auditions. Often I’m getting feedback from directors that the role I read for ended up going to a nonunion actor. It’s tough, and it’s been a really big test.

I hear from peers that my experience is not atypical. It takes a while for producers to get used to thinking of an actor that used to cost them only a stipend’s amount now costing them a weekly salary (as well as contributions to Equity’s health care fund, pension fund and workers comp, depending on the contract). I know too that my experience of the past 18 months is related to my skill set and type (female, Caucasian and approaching an age that rhymes with sporty), and someone with a different combo of age, gender and ethnicity who has opera-level singing chops and speaks Spanish would probably not be having the exact same year that I’ve had.

So, it’s been a challenging year for me. But it’s also been a year of growth and new experiences, and all of this being said, here are a few observations from my first year in the union.

1. I’ve learned not to assume that casting people know I’m union. I need to be the one to bring it up.

I’ve had many conversations, in person or via email or Facebook in the past year that have gone something like this:

“Hey Valerie, we’d love you to come in and read for such-and-such role in our upcoming show—here’s the performance calendar—are you available?”

“Thanks so much for thinking of me. I’m totally free during that time—when do you want to see me read? Oh, and just checking, you know I joined Equity in September, right? What contract are you using for this show?”

“Oh. Um. You know what, we’ve actually already cast all of the contracts we had for this show. Didn’t know you were Equity. We’re not going to be able to have you audition. Bummer.”

I’ve even had these conversations with people who I know watched me audition on the Equity day at the Theatre Bay Area General Auditions, and with people whom I’ve given an updated version of my resume with my new union status.

2. I wish I’d learned more about how the BAPP code works, so I could walk a producer through it when there’s a project I’d really like to participate in.

BAPP stands for Bay Area Project Policy. It’s a code, as opposed to a contract, that allows an Equity actor to work for stipend on a showcase project. It has specific instructions about how many tickets can be sold per show, and how many weeks a show can rehearse and total hours per week.

This past year, I had an incident where a newer theatre company was very interested in working with me. I had done a show with one of the founders of the company when I was still nonunion, and they were totally interested in having me work with them on their project. I let them know I was union, and they still wanted to figure out how to work with me on their project. I knew that there was something called a BAPP, but not exactly how it worked, particularly the issues around number of rehearsal weeks. This project had a longer than usual rehearsal time, because the company was writing the show itself. In initial conversations, they felt confident that they’d be able to talk Equity into giving them a BAPP even with the long rehearsal time. Ultimately, Equity said no a few days prior to the first rehearsal, and I was unable to do the show. If I’d had more information about the BAPP and its application process to give them, I could’ve helped them make things work.

3. I’ve traveled farther for auditions than I used to, and have done more daytime auditioning than I used to.

When more money’s on the line and there are contract clauses where theatres have to provide housing for actors who live further away, it makes more sense to travel to audition. I’ve been up to Sacramento at least half a dozen times in the past year, both for generals and for specific show calls, and I’m looking into doing an “audition tour” heading north along I-5 through Oregon and Washington.

Also, just about every general audition at a major theatre in the Bay Area takes place on a weekday between 10 and 5 (including Equity day at the Theatre Bay Area Generals). I’m very glad to have flexible hours with my money jobs, and to have coworkers and supervisors who understand that auditions take place on an unpredictable schedule.

4. I’ve looked for ways to build relationships with directors that go beyond the three-minute general audition.

I think staged readings are a great opportunity to show directors what you’re like in the rehearsal room and how you work as an actor. It’s different info than they can glean from simply meeting you for three minutes while you show off your contemporary comedic and your serious classical audition pieces. In the past year, I’ve researched which companies do staged readings and when those staged readings are, and made sure that I let people know I was interested and available at the appropriate times. I’ve also joined a theatre’s literary committee, so I’ve been in meetings and artistic discussions with directors.

5. Equity has some awesome perks and discounts.

This past year, I’ve gotten discounted or free tickets to a lot of shows by flashing my Equity card. Even when traveling internationally! I went to Ireland last March, and at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, there was a discount on tickets for Equity members. Equity offers discounts on rental cars and gyms, and there’s a program where you can get up to a $40 reimbursement when you buy a pair of shoes to wear to auditions.

6. The jobs are fewer, and even fewer for women.

The pool of women who audition is so much larger than the pool of men who audition. There are more roles for men than for women in most plays. This combo of facts creates the perfect storm for Equity contracts to go to men more often than they go to women. I knew this before I joined, but not to the specific degree that I know about it now. I have been watching these numbers since June 2011 at my blog (sfbayareaactor.blogspot.com). Once a month, I publish an update to the Counting Actors project, where I report on the number of actors employed in the previous month on the specific shows counted. I break things down by gender and by union versus nonunion. Between June and December 2011, I counted 75 shows; 32 percent of the roles went to union actors, and there were four men for every three women under union contract.

7. Fall down seven times, get up eight.

Just after the tsunami in Japan, I read an article that included this inspiring Japanese proverb. I was struck by how it accurately it described what had been happening in my life over the past year. I began to examine what I needed in my life in order to get up more times than I fall down. So from the way I talk and think to the activities I choose, to the people I spend time with, I’m learning what helps me live this proverb. Riding a bike, yoga, celebrating the successes of others, travel with loved ones, consistent check-ins with artistic peers, and high-end dark chocolate are a few of the successful strategies so far.

As I said earlier, the actor’s journey is unique to that actor, and highly connected to one’s type and skill set. I can only hope that these seven insights from my first year in the union help smooth out bumps in the road for others.


Valerie Weak is a San Francisco‒based actor and theatre educator. Info about her current projects on stage, screen and beyond can be found at valerieweak.com.