On Names, Burning Bridges, and Gatekeepers

Ok, my friends, I'm back with another blog about the ongoing fight with AEA over 99-seat theatre in Los Angeles.  When last we met, I destroyed some propaganda from the leadership.  Take a look at it, if you want to see me burning a bridge with vigor.  It should appear to the right.  I also took Kate Shindle to task for her open letter, and while she copped to the clarity of my argument that there is no "yes, but.." vote, and has since come around on the issue and has become the darling of the pro-99 movement, she hasn't responded to any of my questions since Should she become president of AEA, and I am offered an Equity contract, (as a former member) it would go before her to approve.  So, you know...burning bridges left and right. 

But it's fucking worth it.

I stand unafraid of this union.  I stand very much unimpressed by their leadership.  I stand in solidarity with my union friends who also stand to lose a lot by putting their names on every thing they write.  We are fighting to save something special to us.  And every one of us who is fighting this fight is doing so for very personal, artistic reasons.  And we are all signing our names to what we write.

AEA continues to send out propaganda with half a dozen actors statements on why they are voting yes on this plan.  For a vote that doesn't matter, they sure as hell are spending a lot of time and (member dues) rallying their members to support this terrible plan.  This list includes mostly people who haven't done 99-seat theatre, or more disturbingly those who actually got their careers started here and don't believe others should have the same benefit (at least without being paid like the guy making french fries at Micky D's).  The list includes a couple of one-person show artists (who were able to workshop those pieces in the very theatres they don't care about any longer), many musical theatre artists, who don't really have a dog in the fight but are towing the union line, and others who actually believe that they are doing the right thing...I guess. 

One of them actually complained that working in 99-seat theatre was a problem because she couldn't afford child-care while she was working on a show.  Which, as a father of two, believe me comes into play for me as well.  Unfortunately the show in question was one that she was actually DIRECTING.  Thus putting to rest the AEA talking point that everybody in 99-seat theatre is making a living wage except the actors, while simultaneously showing both her and those her spread her stories to be vulgar liars.

But at least they put their names on it.  There is a group (I guess, it could just be one sorry soul) in N. Hollywood who tweets at everybody who takes a stand against this plan.  Anonymously.  They call anyone who is on our side: "Anti-union."  I've even seen them calling certain politicians who have long histories supporting unions:  "Union busters."  They tweet at celebrities, trying to shame them with questions like:  "Why don't you want actors to make money?  Why are you anti-union?  Don't you think actors deserved to be paid at all?"  All nonsense.  Jason Alexander called them trolls, and said he wouldn't talk to anonymous people.  And I loved him even more for it.  These people (or that one lonely fucker unable to make a cogent point) want to remain nameless, so I won't bother to share their twitter handle.  Trust me, you're better off without it.

What really makes me mad though, is that one of their miniscule amount of followers is AEA itself.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised by anything they do at this point.  But giving validity to anonymous cyber-bullies seems beneath even them.  But hey, any port in a storm.  And since this proposal has been so thoroughly destroyed by everybody, I guess it's nice that they have that one pathetic tweeter shaming on their behalf. 

And let me be clear:  Nobody on our side is fighting to make no money.  This is a ridiculous lie.  And everybody who is saying it knows that they are lying.  We all want more money for actors.  To be clear, this isn't about that.  It's about destroying a plan the union hates.  That's what this whole thing is about.

Ok, I'm almost done with this blog.  But before I go, I just want to say that I have been a working actor for more than 25 years.  A working, paid actor.  A professional.  I knew what I was going to do with my life since I was a kid.  And I wanted to be in the Union.  Not because I was a pro-union guy (which I am) but because they are the gate-keepers.  Sure there was a certain prestige to being a member, but mostly I just wanted access to auditions.  Big auditions.  I finally joined when I thought my career was taking a certain trajectory. The trajectory changed, and I found myself in financial trouble. So, in the end, I was a member of AEA for less than two years. (of my over than two decades of work).  Short hand, they lied to me.  They forced me out.  I said the words "fi-core" (or is that one word?), and like that I was gone.  I get it. I'm a pro-union guy.

But this union is a joke.  I guess when 80% of your workforce is out of work, you try to make yourself relevant however you can.  So instead of focusing on getting back the rehearsal weeks from Regional Theatre that have been nearly cut in half over the last decade, or making sure that the national tours of hit musicals are cast with Equity Actors, or insisting that AEA houses in Los Angeles cast local members, you go after the little guy.  It's like the GOP attacking people on welfare, while ignoring corporations dodging taxes.  It's shameful. 

Though we are little, we are mighty.  We are scrappy.  We know how to organize.  We will not back down.  And we will put our name on it!

My name is Patrick Vest!