Health Care Ruling and Indie Artists

Contributed by Shay Gines

WOW, the Supreme Court announced today that it will uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare” as it has been dubbed by the press. According to the Supreme Court statement, Congress enacted the healthcare plan “in order to increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance and decrease the cost of health care.”

Whether or not the act would be deemed constitutional and would actually go into effect is a question that has weighed heavily on Americans’ minds ever since it was passed in 2010. Subsidized healthcare has become a key topic especially as the recession has found millions of people without jobs and the assistance of employer-sponsored insurance to cover medical costs for them and their families.

As “freelancers,” indie theatre artists across the country have struggled with this for decades. How many of us have turned to day jobs not just to make the rent, but perhaps more importantly to qualify for affordable health insurance? The Fractured Atlas website notes that “independent workers, such as artists, now make up 30% of the total workforce.” This means that nearly a third of America’s labor force is left to find and maintain health insurance without the benefit of collective bargaining. “We need a new model that echoes the origin of insurance – people joining together to make sure they have each others’ backs when times get tough” Sara Horowitz founder and Executive Director of Freelancers Union says on her blog. “Freelancers recognized this early on. It was only when they joined together as a group that they could leverage their own power. Solidarity works. And that is our touchstone moving ahead.”

Will the PPAC Act provide the changes that our community needs? I believe that these reforms will be significantly beneficial to indie artists.  I think some of the most valuable provisions include:

• No annual or lifetime limit on benefits – meaning that your insurance provider can’t cut you off just because you exceed a spending limit. There is some tricky fine print about this and some role out dates. So if this is important to you check out the details.
• You can not be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition – they also can not unreasonably jack up your rates based on a pre-existing condition.
• Young Adults can remain on their parents’ insurance plan until the age of 26 years old – 15% of the OOB community is 19 to 26 years old. So this provision will allow those artists some stability and flexibility as they endeavor to establish their careers. There are some limitations.
• Creation of CO-OP non-profit health insurance – CO-OP stands for Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans. According to the HealthCare.gov website, CO-OPs are “meant to offer consumer-friendly, affordable health insurance options to individuals and small businesses.” They are basically a group of individuals and small businesses banning together to run their own health insurance. It is a very exciting option. One that I think we will see a lot of in the next few years. If you are interested in this, check out more details.
• It’s Affordable Health Insurance – The bottom line is that it is affordable health insurance that offers more options for many of us who have struggled to maintain health insurance. Maybe we will not be so dependent on day jobs?  Maybe???? I can dream.

Are there short comings or a down side?  Well, nothing is perfect and when it comes to health care, one size does not fit all. So there will undoubtedly be a lot of growing pains over the next few years. Currently there are a number of valid concerns about such a sweeping reform:

• Increased Taxes – The federal government is already in so much debt that it is mind boggling. Experts anticipate that the U.S. will spend over $1 trillion in the next decade to subsidize this reform. Will this cost be passed on to taxpayers? Will it plunge the country into even more debt? Will the investment pay off in a healthier population that does not need to spend as much money on health care? Time will tell.
• Postal Service Health Care – Have you ever been to the post office? I hate it. Long lines that take forever. Inefficient procedures. Impersonal. Staff that could not care less about you or your business. Hot. Frustrating. Lethargic… The fear is that if the federal government takes control of your health care, it will become just like the post office; bogged down in bureaucracy and that ultimately it will become a regimented machine that does not take the personal needs of the patients into account. Personally I don't think health care will slip into the postal quagmire.
• Individual Mandate – This was really where the constitutionality of Healthcare Act was called into question. The law would mandate that Americans are required to have health insurance or else they would face a penalty – oops I mean a tax. (There are some people who are exempt.) It will be interesting to see how the government deals with this.

Even with these uncertainties and questions I think that it is a step in positive and progressive direction.

What do you think? Will the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act benefit you? 

Awesome Stage Managers

Did you register your production with the IT Awards for the 2011-2012 season? 

Did you have an awesome Stage Manager? 

If so, help us recognize their awesomeness by submitting an application for them to be considered for the Outstanding Stage Manager Award. 

Applications are online now and are due August 1, 2012 by 5pm.

As a part of the New York Innovative Theatre Awards, we have the opportunity to recognize the integral role Stage Managers play in the theatrical process and we are honored to present this award to one of the most important members of the team.

You can read about our previous recipients:

2009 - Jillian Zeman

2010 - Jaimie Van Dyke

2011 - Laura Schlachtmeyer

And here is a blog post about how we developed this award.

Green Resources for Theatre Artists

We would like to thank all of our amazing bloggers this month. We were so honored to be able to share their green experiences, Eco-friendly initiatives and resources with you.

• Joanne Haas tells us how to Keep Costumes out of Landfills
• Lory Henning asks What's the Triple Bottom Line
• Kevin Stirnweis gives us tips for Using Materials for the (Theatre) Arts
• Sarah-Jane Stratford introduces the "Green Captain"
• FABnyc shared their Sustainability Initiatives
• Jeremy Pickard asked if you are an Eco-theater Artist
• And some advice on how to be a Green Audience Member
  

Also, check out this article by Jeremy Karafin. He shares the experiences of some of the Eco-friendly productions being presented by the Wild Project.


Here are some great and easy resources that will help OOB productions save some green while being green.

• Need to know where to recycle batteries? Or computer paper? Or plastic bags, construction debris or electronics? Earth 911 helps you locate recycling centers/drop offs near you
• Check out the Superhero Clubhouse, a sustainable collective of theater artists and environmental advocates
• Check out new initiatives at The Broadway Green Alliance
• Use and donate reusable production materials to Materials for the Arts 
• Donate to and rent costumes from The Costume Collective

 

Are you an Eco-theater Artist?

Photo by Sue Kessler
The Planktons' Escape: Sam West, Danny Gardner, Flakoo Jimenez.

Contributed by Jeremy Pickard

As a self-proclaimed eco-theater artist, I am overjoyed at the steady greening I see in the NYC theater community.  From Off-Off companies designing with entirely recycled materials to the Broadway Green Alliance replacing marquis bulbs with LEDs, there is immense progress.  Indeed, this very blog is proof that NYC theater is both innovative and principled.

But I wonder how much greener we could be if sustainable thought began earlier in our creative process...

I am privileged to work for The Bushwick Starr once a year, heading their annual Big Green Theater Festival.  The festival begins with a 3-month teaching artist program in which 5^th graders write eco-plays (that is, plays inspired by environmental topics).  The program culminates around Earth Day, when the students’ plays are given a professional production at the Starr using only green theater techniques. 

Photo by by Sue Kessler
Spoiler Alert!: Monica Santana, Danny Gardner

5^th graders are incredible eco-theater artists.  They simultaneously possess wild imaginations and sophisticated processing skills, making them innately excellent at absorbing environmental information and then turning their new-found knowledge into wonderful storytelling.  They write ambitious adventures without censorship, yet remain practical about how such plays might translate into green production.  Because on a playground they are accustomed to improvising their make-believe with whatever they have around them, their written stories are huge but their expectations are not; they assume an audience’s imagination will do most of the work.  

Can we adults take a tip from a 5^th grader, and reduce our reliance on resources without sacrificing our big ideas?  Can this sort of green thinking start at the very beginning, when ideas are still germinating?  As we write or devise new work, can we begin by giving ourselves rules-- not only for story, theme and character but also for production?  This might mean considering, from the very first page of a script, what we’re asking production teams to build, what sort of space we’re demanding our plays be performed in, and how long we expect energy-intensive lights, heat and air conditioning to stay turned on. 

Photo by Sue Kessler
Expedition to the Gyre (clockwise from upper left):
Sam West, Danny Gardner, Katey Parker,
Flakoo Jimenez, Tina Mitchell

When I write adult eco-plays, I give myself limitations: I try to write for a nearly bare stage, I omit lighting cues and major scenic changes, and though my aesthetic is often epic, I strive to stay within an intermission-less 90-minute run time.  These limitations don’t make me feel limited; on the contrary, by prioritizing bodies, voices and imagination, I find I can challenge myself, my collaborators and the medium of theater in new ways.  Additionally, I have found that these types of early-considered limitations encourage actors to become more virtuosic, directors and designers more innovative, and audiences more engaged. 

As a director, I try to apply the same principles when I am considering how to bring a script to life.  Once the ten student plays of this year’s Big Green Theater were in my hand, I spent countless hours with our designers (Michael Minnahan and Preesa Bullington) developing a design that would allow all of the plays to exist within the same world, and a concept that would result in the whole becoming greater that the sum of its parts. 

So we came up with a set of rules-- literally a set of rules: using one of the students’ plays (aptly titled Clean Up The Park) as a frame, the set became a littered park, and the action of the evening was cleaning it up.  The nine (more fantastical) internal plays were stories the characters told each other as they picked up and organized garbage.  The actors created gestures inspired by the act of cleaning, and then recycled and reused those gestures throughout.  The plays became the reason for cleaning, and the cleaning the reason for the plays.  

Of course, the set, costumes, lights and rehearsal practices were as green as can be, the program paperless, and the performance space carbon-neutral.  When it was finished, the action-packed evening of plays was less than an hour long.  The Starr’s rooftop hydroponic garden was open, and the refreshments were local. 

I wonder what would happen if every theater space and company in NYC thought green from the very start.  How quickly green the status quo!  How brilliant the citywide problem solving!  With greener values embedded earlier in our processes, could the rigor of our sustainable practices rival the already enviable caliber of our creative innovation?

 ----------------------------

Jeremy Pickard captains Superhero Clubhouse, a sustainable collective of theater artists and environmental advocates, and has produced over a dozen eco-theater productions since 2008 including the first five (of eventually nine) Planet Plays.  Jeremy is the lead artist for The Bushwick Starr’s annual Big Green Theater Festival and a commissioned artist of PositiveFeedback, NYC’s first inter-institutional consortium uniting artists and scientists in climate change collaboration.  You can see Superhero Clubhouse’s production of SATURN (a play about food) Aug 30-Sept 9 at The Wild Project, and the third annual Big Green Theater Festival in April 2013 at The Bushwick Starr.  www.superheroclubhouse.org

Arts meet Sustainability

Contributed by By FABnyc

Arts meet Sustainability in the East 4^th Street Cultural District

FABnyc (Fourth Arts Block) is the nonprofit leadership organization for the Lower East Side, headquartered in the East 4^th Street Cultural District—a historic and vibrant arts cluster in Manhattan between Second Avenue and Bowery. As part of this leadership role, FABnyc is heading up an interconnected effort to match existing energy, waste and water reduction programs to arts groups, residents, and small businesses in the Cultural District. As an arts organization, we are trying to bring more creativity to connect our community to sustainable practices.

For example… In 2010, FABnyc noticed that local theaters were “loading out” sets and materials directly into dumpsters after productions ended their runs. Not only were the materials being disposed of inefficiently and unsustainably, but this “junk” was often of great value to other artists in need of materials. As a creative response, FABnyc initiated “Load OUT!,” a biannual event in which local arts and cultural groups, non-profits, and community members donate sets, costumes, props and office equipment they no longer need to a collection site. On the day of “Load OUT!” local artists and the general public are invited to take away any materials they find at the site for creative use in new projects! Hundreds of artists and residents have benefited, either through collecting the lightly used materials, or by donating items they no longer need or want. The program continues to grow, now including textile and e-waste collection for the entire community.

At the most recent Load OUT! event in March 2012, local arts groups such as La MaMa E.T.C., New York Theater Workshop, and Millennium Film Workshop donated incredible materials to the “Load OUT!” site. With the help of our sustainability partners, FABnyc was able to divert over 6 tons from the waste stream, including more than 1 ton of e-waste and almost 1 ton of textiles. This is the largest single diversion we have accomplished to date.

We have completed energy and lighting assessments for many of the theaters on our block, and we plan on developing a program to better inform local theaters about the benefits of efficient waste disposal and energy use practices. We have also worked with White Roof Project to cover 30,000 square feet of roof with white reflective coating to reduce the heat island effect; in June, La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theater building will be coated as well. Through these efforts, we are creating a tighter-knit community that is able to collaborate and collectively solve our environmental problems. For now, you can get involved now by saving all your “junk” for the next Load OUT! event, and be sure to stay tuned for more tips and tools from us that will help make our city more sustainable!

Click here to learn more about our Sustainability Program.

Cultivating a Green Audience

While we as theatre artists can make more environmentally friendly choices when creating our productions, we can also encourage our audiences to be more green as well.

Here are a few tips on how audience members can be more environmentally aware while at the theatre:

• Consider your transportation options: Take public transportation to the theatre. Walk or bike when possible or look into car-pooling opportunities. Producers can help by providing information about these options on their website and other marketing materials.
• Don’t litter!: Use appropriate recycling and trash bins. Be especially considerate of cigarette butts.
• Recycle programs: If, after the performance, you will no longer need your program, return it to the company for use at future performances.
• Recycle postcards & flyers: If you liked the show, pass your postcard or flyer on to friends. Not only is this an environmentally friendly way to recycle, you are helping the production as well. Trust us they’ll appreciate it.  (If you didn’t enjoy the show, you can discretely place your postcard or flyer into the nearest recycle bin.)
• Help spread the word through green sources: Word of  Mouth, Facebook, Email, Twitter, etc. are fantastic marketing tools that can reach hundreds and sometimes thousands of people without using a single piece of paper. You can help your favorite Indie Theatre company by letting your network know about their amazing work.
• Visit Neighborhood Restaurants and Bars: When planning your evening out, patronize neighborhood restaurants and bars that incorporate green practices or purchase local and seasonal snacks and drinks. Again producers can help by providing a list of these neighborhood eateries on their website.
• Donate to Materials for the Arts: If you have unwanted items that could be useful to theatre companies and other artists, instead of throwing them out, consider donating them to Materials for the Arts.

Do you have other suggestions? Let us know.