by Patrick Blake
One of the things I do is go on the theater discussion boards. Last month there was a discussion of Hamilton and how the actors were compensated compared to other creative members of the team.
Hamilton has sold hundreds of millions of dollars in tickets – which means the writer, director, and choreographer have made hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not millions). But the actors, assuming they are still with the show, have only made tens of thousands. The person who posted on the board did not think that was fair.
The belief was that being paid for the current work (acting in Hamilton) was not enough. The person posting believed that, like all other creatives, actors should get paid from future revenue.
Who Creates the Work? And How Are They Paid?
Let’s look at how a creative work, especially a piece of theater, comes to be.
There are three main groups of people who create theater:
- the creators (playwrights, composers, lyricists)
- people who fund the enterprise (producers, investors) and
- people who bring the work to life (actors, designers, dramaturgs, directors, and technical staff members).
Creators do not get paid, except for a small token payment to take the work off the market until the show is done. Period.
Producers and investors do not get paid until the show they funded is in production and/or profit. Period.
People who do the work get paid when they do the work. And, unlike the other two groups, if the show never goes into production (or fails) they still get paid.
Contributed Value to the Production
It is easy to see why the creatives and the producers get paid throughout the run, however long it may be; it is, after all, the only payment they receive. But what are the arguments for the workers then?
In the case of every worker but actors, the argument is that their contribution is ongoing. The set is used, the actors follow the instructions the director gave them, the play incorporates notes from the dramaturg.
But in the case of actors, the question is, which group of actors?
- There is the group of actors who participate in readings.
- There is the group of actors for the opening of the show – the original cast.
- There is the group of actors that stay with the show for the entire length of the run.
Which group of actors should get to participate in the ongoing revenue? Which group of actors contribute the most?
This is an impossible question. There is no way to determine which group of actors contribute the most.
In Summary
So therefore, since there is no way to determine which group of actors contributed the most value to the ongoing production, the answer to this question [on which actors should be paid ongoing revenue] is: no one should.
Do you agree?