Taken from an audition notice on the Philadelphia Theater Alliance Listserv:

Non-Union M/F Singers Needed for PAID Cabaret Concert Series!  A new performing Arts program in Philly is holding auditions for its upcoming season of cabaret concerts.  The first show of the season will take place in a few weeks with two evening rehearsals the week leading into the show.  All performers will be paid through a commission based ticket sale process. 

By now you should all know my views on doing work for free.  So when I search for audition opportunities, I’m always looking for the big “P” word.  When I saw this recently on the TAGP website, I thought everything sounded pretty good, until I got to the last sentence.  Performers will be paid through a commission-based ticket sale process?!  Bullshit.  This is not actually a paid gig.  What that means, to the uneducated, is that performers will get paid based on how many tickets they sell.  Which translates to: you’re basically asking those who love and support you by being kind enough to come see you in a show to subsidize your career.  Maybe some people are comfortable with that, but I’m not.  At all.

At this point in my life, I’ve been in about a billion performances.  Frankly, I think most my family and friends are tired of coming to see me perform.  Moreover, I’m tired of asking them to come, and making them feel uncomfortable enough to say yes, when they’d probably rather spend their weekend nights doing something way more fun than sitting in a crowded theater.  It is SO not cool to depend solely on your cast members to bring in an audience at the professional level.  In addition to the reason mentioned above, there is also the fact that I often don’t have spare time to brush my teeth, let alone peddle tickets.

Aside from these minutiae, I have an even bigger problem with this audition notice.  Fact is, this is not unusual.  It’s actually pretty common.  In the theater world, there are “workshop” productions, where actors are afforded the “wonderful opportunity to work with up-and-coming writers and directors.”  Translation: you aren’t getting paid squat.  In the opera world, there are “pay-to-sing” gigs, where singers actually have to PAY somebody to perform choice roles.  There are also application fees for almost everything, including productions that never happen, or competitions that are cancelled at the last minute, both without the faintest attempt to return your hard-earned cash.  In both worlds, there are people and companies who honestly don’t mean to cheat their actors/singers, but who literally have almost no money to pay them, yet they still feel it is important to produce art.  And it is important, it really is.  What’s to be done, though?  Our universities and conservatories are educating hundreds of thousands of young people to enter these fields every year, and for what?  Is performing really a viable career, in the sense that people can support themselves financially by doing it?  Is it fair to let students go through these programs without truly understanding the implications of living this career, perhaps having to get “day jobs” that don’t require their expensive college degrees?

These are just some thoughts I’ve been having.