the week of august 23 - 27, 2021
do u wanna golden parachute
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Identity Design: Elizabeth Haley Morton || Editorial Support: Rebecca Adelsheim
in-person & digital theatre
Noah Diaz’s The Swindlers: A True-ish Tall Tale starts performances at Baltimore Center Stage on September 2nd. Directed by Will Davis, the world premiere is “a raucous new play — loosely inspired by the real-life exploits of the playwright’s mother and grandfather — that explores redemption, reconciliation, and the unspoken rewards of surviving time with family.”
Frances Poet’s audio play Sophia streams August 27-29. The project is part of the Sound Stage series by Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the Royal Lyceum. Directed by Janys Chambers, the play is the story of Sophia Jex-Blake, Scotland’s first woman doctor and “her pioneering campaign against a hostile, all-male medical establishment.”
Michael John O'Neill’s This is Paradise streams on demand September 1 - 29, following its limited in-person run at the Traverse Theatre. Directed by Katherine Nesbitt and starring Amy Molloy, the monologue is “a mesmeric story of Northern Ireland.”
Frankie Meredith’s May Queen is now touring the UK as part of Paines Plough Roundabout. The new play, directed by Balisha Karr, is set at a Coventry May Day celebration marred by an act of sexual violence.
2021-22 season updates
Writers Theatre announced its upcoming season. The line-up includes Alaudin Ullah’s Dishwasher Dreams (directed by Chay Yew), Gracie Gardner’s Athena (choreographed by Steph Paul and directed by Jessica Fisch), and the world premieres of Eleanor Burgess’ Wife of a Salesman and Felicia P. Fields and Ron OJ Parson’s musical revue Pearl's Rollin' with the Blues (directed by Parson and dramaturged by Kimberly Dixon-Mays).
postponements
Annie Baker’s Infinite Life at Signature Theatre has been postponed due to “ongoing health and safety reasons.” The Baker-directed world premiere — previously titled Second Arrow and On the Uses of Pain for Life — was scheduled to open in October.
that’s not a living wage
Here are this week’s featured underpaid job listings, paired with the living wage for a 40-hour work week for one adult with no children in that area. (You can read more about the methodology here.)
Development Operations Assistant, 5th Avenue Theatre: $35,000 - $42,500 (overtime eligible)
Seattle, WA Living Wage: $43,555Administrative Assistant, Board & Government Relations, Roundabout Theatre Company: $42,000 (overtime eligible)
NYC Living Wage: $51,323Artistic Production Associate, Manhattan Theatre Club: “low to mid 40K”
NYC Living Wage: $51,323Assistant Patron Services Manager, George Street Playhouse: $680/week ($35,360)
Middlesex County, NJ Living Wage: $42,039
this week in golden parachutes
The Salt Lake Tribune reported this week that former Pioneer Theatre Company managing director Christopher Massimine will receive a $175,000 settlement. Massimine resigned from his position last week, months after journalist Adam Herbets uncovered multiple false claims and embellishments in Massimine’s resume, and shortly after Rebecca Ritzel published her own report in the New York Times.
In a separate agreement, the University of Utah settled with well-known recruitment firm Management Consultants for the Arts. MCA identified potential candidates and performed background checks during its 2019 search for Massimine’s position, charging the university $35,928 for these services. The University of Utah will receive a refund of $17,964.31.
Golden parachutes seem like an exclusive byproduct of corporate America, reserved for high-level business mergers and disgraced CEOs, but there’s precedence in the non-profit theatre world. In 2018, the Houston Chronicle reported that artistic director Gregory Boyd received a $383,000 severance payment after his abrupt retirement. The news came after the Chronicle published multiple allegations of Boyd’s abusive behavior, including bullying, verbal and sexual harassment, and inappropriate physical contact with female actors.
Exorbitant payouts for leaders accused of misconduct are always infuriating, but it feels particularly inexcusable right now. We’re still in the midst of a crisis that left thousands of theatre workers unemployed, by no fault of their own. Most furloughed or laid off at-will employees didn’t receive severance, and low-to-mid-level staffers don’t make enough money to build robust emergency savings. At a time when field-wide conversations about worker protections and salary transparency are finally accelerating, we can’t ignore how the current compensation system creates an unfair divide that enables and rewards executives, regardless of their egregious behavior.
