October 10 – Day 34: Look for the Union Label


I am now an Equity actor.

My day started by finding out—in a bass-ackward way—that I’d joined the union. I had no idea I’d done it; it’s apparently a fait accompli. And now I need to undo it.

Now, I’ve nothing against Equity, and hope to be a member some day, but today (or yesterday) is not that day. If I were a working actor in New York or Los Angeles or even Chicago, I’d be happy to join, but in San Francisco, it makes no sense. (Of course, if I were living in New York or Los Angeles or Chicago, I’d probably stand a better chance of being hired for an Equity show in San Francisco, since so many of the actors seem to be hired from those towns rather than locally.) If I were Equity, I would cut myself off from working in a lot of theatres, and it just doesn’t make sense for me at this point, so Friday, I’m going to have to go to the Equity office—where I just was!—and get it straightened out. What I’m guessing happened is that I’ve accumulated so many points working in Equity shows that I was automatically enrolled. What I need to find out is if I can keep my accumulated points, or have to start from scratch again. I’m suspecting the latter, but hope for the former.

In spite of this oddity, I had some errands to run on Wednesday, which got me up at a more-reasonable hour.

First of all, the comic shop. Wednesday is new comics day, and has been for the last thirty years or so. When I was a kid, I would head to the two closest liquor stores (what we called convenience stores back in the stone age in Southern California) on Tuesdays and Thursdays to see what had come out. It got to the point at one of them that they’d let me rack the new books, since I knew what was new and what wasn’t. Eventually, there started to be stores devoted solely to selling comics (my first was Comics and Stuff in lovely Hawaiian Gardens—one of the grossest examples of civic misnaming in the United State—that was a little shack behind a vacuum cleaner store). For the longest time, new comics day was Friday, then suddenly moved up a day to Thursday, and eventually settled in on Wednesday, where it’s been for 30 years or more. (I suspect the changes were due to greater efficiencies in getting the books shipped from the printers.) I bought a few books (though I keep wavering between wanting to buy and knowing I’ve got stuff on hold at my regular shop back home), then set off for the Equity offices (to file my contract for the show; at this point, I didn’t know about the membership thing) on W. 44th. It was a reasonably nice day (still humid, but it will always be humid for the rest of my life …) and the route was generally fast until I hit started to get into the 40s and touristitis set in and sidewalks became more and more crowded and cramped.

I arrived at the Equity building (I’m sure it’s not all theirs, but they have their name on the front and at least a couple of floors on the inside), produced my ID for the guard, went to the elevators, got off on the wrong floor (I was in the credit union/membership area on 15), got back on the elevators, went to the right floor (14), gave the guy behind the desk my contract, then back down the “sky lobby’s” snack bar for a bottle of water before heading to my next stop, the offices of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC; in other words, the director’s and choreographers union, of which I’m an associate member) to meet some of the people I’d been corresponding with. 

 See? Say so right on the front.

A word of explanation: When I learned that Pam McKinnon, a Tony-winning director and the President of SDC, was coming to San Francisco to be the new head of ACT, I wanted to set up a meet-and-greet for her. I contacted a number of people at both ACT and SDC and managed to get it all together. We had a meeting in August that went quite well, in that a number of the people there got to meet each other or reconnect and we had a great time just sitting around talking about the problems all directors face, but rarely get to discuss with others in the same position. (This is something I want to try to foster when I get back to SF, by the way. I was in the Directors’ Lab West in Pasadena in 2004—which is a week of workshops, seminars, and discussions where directors of all skill levels come together in a non-competitive setting and talk shop. It’s very inspiring, and I hope to do that with Bay Area directors; not just SDC members—though I’d also encourage them to join.)

 That's my union!

Anyway, since I was in town, I wanted to meet the people I’d been corresponding with, and they couldn’t have been nicer or more welcoming. I distributed some postcards for the show, then got to sit and have a cup of tea and a snack since, as a member, I’m entitled to use the facilities for meetings or just taking a break when I’m in midtown. I stayed for a little while, then it was time to move Drama Book Store to see what was new (not much), then on to the theatre for the show.

The show itself was pretty good. Audience was quiet (as they have been for the most part), with occasional laughs. The most notable thing was how quickly the applause petered out as soon as we were leaving the stage after the curtain call. It felt more perfunctory than appreciative, but what are you going to do?

After the show, some of us finally had time for a post-performance drink. One of the perks of working at 59E59 is that actors are given both temporary memberships and a coupon for a free drink, and it was a delight to finally have the time for some of us (GG, Eric, Andi, and I) to just go down to the theatre’s bar and have a beverage while talking over the show and getting to know each other (and Molly, the great bartender that night). Trish’s parents had driven from Toronto to see the show, so she spent some time with them before joining us later. Having drinks after a show is not something I would normally recommend after every performance, but doing it once or twice a week is a great way to bond, relax, and talk about the show in a way that nothing else can duplicate. We stayed until well after 11:00, then broke up. It turned out GG and I were on the same 6 train home (I to the Village, he to Brooklyn), so we got to talk some more about our lives and experiences. It was a great evening.

 Set 'em up, Molly!

Since I hadn’t eaten a lot that day, I was hungry and hoping that David’s Café might be open so I could grab a burger, but because it was late on a Wednesday, most everything on St. Marks was closed. I stopped at Ray’s Candy Store for a soft-serve cone, then came home, made a sandwich, and watched some television. I didn’t want to stay up too late, though, because Pidge was coming in the next day, and John was going to change the linens before she arrived. He and I had been trading emails about when he could come and do it (he apparently doesn’t like the tenants here while he does it because there’s so little room), and we’d agreed on noon, so my morning was going to be occupied with straightening things up.

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