While the Writers Guild of America strike goes on, there are signs that others in the entertainment industry (as in so many other sectors of the economy) are looking for union representation.
The numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on union membership are a mixed bag, to say the least; while the absolute number of unionized workers increased by 200,000 in 2022, the number of nonunion jobs grew faster, and last year, U.S. union membership decreased to 10.1 percent of the employed population—the lowest on record. Still, the National Labor Relations Board saw an increase of 53 percent in union representation petitions last year.
Locally, the instructors at Second City, along with their colleagues in Hollywood and Toronto, continue to negotiate for a union contract as the Association of International Comedy Educators (AICE)—a process that began over two years ago.
But for the actors, stage managers, bartenders, and servers of the local company of Drunk Shakespeare, which has been running downtown Chicago since spring 2019 (with, of course, a long COVID-19 hiatus in 2020 and 2021), the process of organizing through the Actors’ Equity Association as Drunk Shakespeare United and seeking union recognition from their employer, Meme Juice Productions (a for-profit corporation), has been surprisingly fast. Within days of filing their petition with the NLRB, Meme Juice voluntarily recognized the unit.
Drunk Shakespeare
Open run: Mon-Tue 7 PM, Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 7 and 9 PM, Sat 5, 7, and 9 PM, Sun 5 PM, Lion Theatre, 182 N. Wabash, drunkshakespeare.com, $73, 21+
The show is pretty much as advertised: The company enacts its own version of a Shakespeare play with the hitch that one of the actors downs five shots before tackling their role. (It’s also in the tradition of the long-running Chicago improv show, Hitch*Cocktails, wherein actors create a suspense thriller in the style of Alfred Hitchcock while getting plastered.)
Company member Diego Salinas, who has been with the show as an actor and a stage manager since August 2021, notes that none of the other Drunk Shakespeare franchises around the U.S. is currently operating under an Equity contract. (In addition to the original New York City production, there are outposts in Phoenix, Houston, and Washington, D.C.). Salinas says, “We are excited to see our coworkers at other branches and see if they want to come in and join the fold.”
Salinas notes that there were several factors prompting the decision to seek union representation. “I think things really came to a point this past February. We’d had some trouble with scheduling, and there were some payroll issues that kept reoccurring. We were all getting our heads together and were like, ‘We can see the solutions to the problems, since we’re the ones there every day.’ And whenever we tried to kick those up the food chain, they would kind of get acknowledged, but the plans and solutions that we wanted to see weren’t the ones being implemented.”
The Drunk Shakespeare team began talking to the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC). “They helped us start getting our ducks in a row,” says Salinas. “We reached out to Equity in May, and from there, it really went fast and well. We had 100 percent signatures on our union authorization cards—everyone from all the actors onstage, everybody who works at the bar and behind the scenes, is in support of this union and excited to move forward.
Now that Meme Juice has recognized them, they can move forward with negotiations. I ask Salinas about the particular health concerns around Drunk Shakespeare, which depends on a level of intoxication for an actor each night. (On the website, the show features a health warning that reads: “We do not condone excessive drinking. Our drunk actors are on a regular rotation system and are carefully monitored at all times. Drinking in moderation can be fun. Drinking to excess can ruin your life. We promote healthy drinking.”)
“I would say health and safety is one of the stronger points of the company in terms of the health safety of our drunk actors. We have robust systems in place to make sure that our drunk actor is taken care of before, during, and after the show. We are all in rotation to make sure everyone’s liver gets a break. And we make sure our actor goes home in an Uber or Lyft or a cab at the end of the night.” Salinas also notes that they had “robust COVID policies” and masking in place after the performances resumed in 2021.
“We really want to bring other aspects of the company to how good the level of safety is,” says Salinas. “We really want to make sure that we can address our short-staffing issues, so we can lessen the amount of four-person shows we do for what is intended to be a five-person cast. One of the main things we’re asking for is more support in the management section. Even since 2019, the original cast, they had identified the need for an assistant manager position that doesn’t currently exist. And that has been brought up consistently in conversations with management and our New York heads.”
Salinas notes that the Drunk Shakespeare staff and artists advocated even before the unionization drive for increasing server pay, in addition to better performer stipends. (Salinas says the latter is now $90 per show, averaging $350 to $550 in take-home pay per week, depending on the number of performances.)
Most Chicago theaters are nonprofit, so they use the Chicago Area Theatre (CAT) contract with Equity. David Levy, communications director of Actors’ Equity, notes that for Drunk Shakespeare, starting from scratch in the bargaining process, the CAT contract might be a starting place, but that there are other models nationally that could serve as a possible template. “In New York, the new immersive Gatsby show [The Gatsby Mansion] is on a cabaret contract. That was mentioned in passing as something to look at here, with the food and drink and the servers being part of the show.”
Salinas notes that there are usually around 11 to 13 people in the ensemble, and they are also developing a new show, Drunk Debates, which sounds a bit like Write Club with booze.
When asked whether there has been an uptick in theaters seeking Equity representation, Levy says, “It’s a little hard to say. There are two categories there. There are the companies that are already unionized. Certainly in the last couple of years, EDI as a category of bargaining priorities has grown. While not being super easy to get through, it’s certainly something both sides are approaching with a common vision of, ‘This is a thing we all acknowledge we want to get right. We might have different ideas of the best way of how to get it right.’
In terms of companies that aren’t already organized, it’s something that’s a little hard to talk about because we can’t make anything public until it’s ready to be public, but we did open a new page on our website this year, actorsequity.org/organize, where folks who are interested in talking to the union can have a direct link to one of our organizers. We get a steady stream of inquiries there. We made it easier for them to find us, but we didn’t used to get that stream of inquiries.”
Levy also references recent organizing successes, such as the storytellers at the Griffith Observatory in LA and the dancers at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood. Salinas adds, “Medieval Times was a watershed moment for us. When we saw that Medieval Times had unionized, we thought it kind of fit our vibe, and that’s when we started looking out for what resources are out there. Equity has been an amazing partner throughout all of this.”
Victory Harvest seeks to empower playwrights
Evanston native Jeffrey Sweet, former member of the original playwrights ensemble at Victory Gardens Theater, has come up with an idea for how to help playwrights be more proactive in getting their work produced. From June 19 to 25, Victory Harvest at City Lit Theater Company will offer a series of events, including a workshop on self-producing by playwright, producer, and entertainment attorney Charles Grippo of Grippo Stage Productions (currently presenting Shaw vs. Tunney by Sweet’s former Victory Gardens playwrights ensemble colleague, Douglas Post); a playwright-director meetup; readings of Sweet’s new play, Rappacini’s Pizza, and Katrina D. RiChard’s Strolling in the Dark; and an improv workshop with Sweet, Annoyance founder Mick Napier, and longtime Chicago improv heavy hitter David Pasquesi (familiar to Veep fans as the ex-husband of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Selina Meyer).
The events are free, but registration is required. Information and reservations are available at grippostagecompany.com.
Speaking of Sweet and improv: A new edition of his seminal oral history on the birth of the Second City, Something Wonderful Right Away, is coming out through Skyhorse Publishing on June 27. On Sunday, June 18, 7:30 PM, Sweet joins Chicago Tribune critic Chris Jones and Mark Larson, author of Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater, in discussion at the Understudy in Andersonville on “The Birth of Second City and the Renaissance of Chicago Theater.” The event is currently sold out, but Sweet says he also plans to be at Bookends and Beginnings in Evanston (1620 Orrington) June 27; check the website for updates.