Salaried actors with PTO????
What I’m moving towards with RGS
Answering: What could a theatre that salaries actors look like on an average Tuesday?
Theatre Upstanders has done a remarkable job laying out the possibilities for a new kind of theatre’s business model, its relationship to its local public, and how that all works on an average Tuesday.
I love where they’re headed.
I’ve literally printed out those two articles and annotated them in half-legible cursive (they’re each like, 30 pages).
I’m in a space of knowing very clearly the visions of where I want to go with Roguish Goblin Stories, while being waaaaaayyyyyyyy at the early part of the path.
There are days it feels like being Bilbo and the dwarves in Mirkwood: I’ve gotten the glimpse above the treetops, but the actual on-the-ground journey is much more twisty!
Still, I’m continuing to orient back to the visions of where I want to go.
I shared the first vision of the public interactive space last week. This week, I want to share what a possible actor day could look like.
Because I’m aiming to make a company that can salary 12+ actors full-time, or better, plus understudies, with benefits, paid time off and childcare.
Yep.
Actors, in shows, with PTO.
No idea what that’s gonna look like.
I can guess it’ll require some creative scheduling with understudies!
Maybe a salaried A cast and B cast, which alternate who’s performing in the creative shows. That way, everyone gets rotating breaks throughout the year.
What are actors doing when not on breaks or a show?
Perhaps working with local organizing groups to develop town hall theatre, where policy becomes personal through collective storytelling.
Perhaps teaching nonviolence through our Sword Fights Stop Fights stage combat workshops.
Perhaps some other thing(s) I haven’t yet imagined.
And/or all of the above!
Who knows? Isn’t that exciting?!
If you wanna see how this develops from the start, doors are already open for membership in RGS.
Some other things I know would be an awesome part of having a full-time actor staff:
working with the Parent Artist Advocacy League (PAAL) to support creative childcare infrastructure
working with our local LGBTQ+ groups to support queer stories
working with our local cultural centers to support multicultural stories
working with the Theatre Advocacy Project (TAP) for theatre HR
bringing Coach Caleb Clark into the first few weeks/months of our season for actor training (he’s the best)
Like, seriously, how cool would it be for university students to land a salaried acting job right out of school, and part of their job consistently focuses on deepening their actor skills????
And who knows what else??!
Yes, I know my dreams are expensive lol
But this is why I’m so determined to make Roguish Goblin Stories such a wildly resource-abundant place!
Because a rising tide lifts all ships.
And stories build the ships and chart our paths across the oceans.
About Beks: Beks Roen (they/he) helps queer folks and allies find adventurous connection & remember they’re loved and not alone through queer theatre & Shakespeare.
After reading independently at 18 months old, accidentally becoming a professional Shakespeare actor within weeks of graduating high school, finding themself with funding to train in stage combat, and accidentally co-producing a virtual theatre festival during the pandemic shutdown, Roen realized that mayyybe engineering wasn’t the career right path...
They now produce queerly classic adventures, celebrating trans and aspec lives on their Substack and their theatre streaming platform Roguish Goblin Stories.
Find more about Roen on their website.
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