A spark that started in Chicago has caught fire around the country, as both staff and performers for Drunk Shakespeare join Actors’ Equity.
Formed in 1913, Equity currently represents over 51,000 professional actors and stage managers. The Drunk Shakespeare Chicago union would not just represent the performers and crew, however, but the entire staff, including servers and bartenders. Union leaders were able to get 100 percent of the Chicago cast and crew to sign their authorization cards, which might not have happened if everyone’s concerns had not been addressed upfront, Fent added.
“It’s thrilling to be a labor leader at this moment in which arts workers across the country, like our colleagues in other industries, are claiming their power,” said Equity president Kate Shindle in a press release. “That’s exactly what the members of Drunk Shakespeare United are doing. These actors and stage managers, servers and bartenders have banded together to unionize in order to achieve a fairer, safer workplace, and Equity is eager to support their efforts. I hope that companies of other shows—who might not have realized that they too can have a unionized workplace—will be inspired by Drunk Shakespeare United’s decision to stand together and say, ‘We deserve better.’”
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Krull explained that during the first weekend in April, the Drunk Shakespeare D.C. team suffered a company-wide COVID-19 outbreak, and half of the staff were out sick. Instead of canceling the shows, they said, upper management pushed the few remaining company members to do back-to-back sold-out shows that Friday. Both managers were out sick, so no management was there that night, and actors were tasked with operating both the light and sound boards despite having no training on either, since no stage manager was present.
“Actors would run onstage to say a line, run off to support stage-management tasks, and then run around to deliver or reset a prop before [returning onstage],” Krull described. “We were fortunate that there were no incidents with inebriated patrons on this particular night, but the staff on duty did not feel supported, and it was a catalyzing factor in our unionization.”
