We have turned our clocks forward and there is more sun today, and for longer, in our hemisphere. Spring.
Theatres are reopening. The diversity of voices represented and bodies representing on our stages is expanding. Creativity abounds and has found places to bloom. People are in rooms together again and touching again. Actors are cautiously taking off their masks, even as audiences and many directors and choreographers are (for the moment) cautiously keeping theirs on.
It remains a time of testing, rapid and otherwise. Exploring new models of making work. Investigating the true meaning of Live, and incorporating digital lessons learned into our storytelling.
Importantly, our community has used its pandemic pause to accelerate the pace of change toward equity in our field, and we can feel the collective momentum building as we interrogate our own practice as artists in this moment. How do we take the requisite steps forward toward sustained and sustainable transformation without allowing ourselves to be pushed back once again, like the clocks?
This issue of the Journal brings us a variety of voices contemplating the nature of change, both personal and in the work. These are inspiring offerings that make us think about the road we’ve traveled and the way ahead, about community and connection and activism and artistry. About rage and joy and struggle and perseverance.
In reflecting back on the last two years—the time since March 12, 2020—I am continually inspired by our Members, the resilience they have shown and the courageous vision they have offered in leading the charge toward necessary change.
In these past two years of so much uncertainty, I have been grateful for the abiding work of our Union staff, who have worked tirelessly, with the support of our dedicated Executive Board, to keep SDC serving our Membership, despite deep cutbacks and furloughs.
There were times when the Union’s very existence seemed in peril—and as Executive Director Laura Penn said at our November Membership Meeting, the journey back to stable ground from the treacherous peak of the pandemic will be no less challenging—but we have come through these two years stronger in many ways: In our resolve to create more access and equity for our Membership and their collaborators. In our commitment to preserve the strength of our agreements, hard-won over years of bargaining. In our work to ensure the safety of our Members, not just regarding COVID—in which SDC’s work with AGMA, and recently AEA, has been a model for the industry—but with respect to a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, and violence.
SDC has made important strides in this period, promulgating contracts covering remote work and advancing protections and compensation structures in our electronic capture agreements that will serve us long after the pandemic. Excitingly, through the courage of our Broadway Associate/Resident directors and choreographers and strategic years-long work, we have finally secured, from the Broadway League, Union ecognition of these workers, whose labor in keeping Broadway and touring productions running is indispensable.
But we know that some theatres and companies have shuttered completely. Others have reduced the number of productions in their seasons. Many of our Members are just trying to hang on until fall when there might be work.
SDC Foundation’s Emergency Assistance Fund has given out more than $200,000 since the beginning of the pandemic to support Members and Associate Members in covering expenses, as outlined in its guidelines, “from rent, utility bills, and groceries, to healthcare costs, child-care, eldercare, [and] access to technological equipment and supplies.” The generosity of those Members and others who have been able to contribute to the Fund—and the willingness of those in need to accept help—is a demonstration of Solidarity in action.
In this issue of the Journal, we join together in a place of conversation. From Sara Holdren’s magnificent meditation on what it is to be a theatremaker in this precarious and ever-evolving period to the many other rich dialogues and personal essays in these pages, we consider, collectively, how we might weather the unexpected, unavoidable changes thrust upon us and imagine and bring into being others more welcome and long-awaited. Here’s to brighter days!
In Solidarity,
Evan Yionoulis
Executive Board President