The 2013 equity member survey is a big thing. 22 pages and 33 questions, trying to get as much knowledge about Equity members and how they use Equity. Surely useful for the organisation and definitely interesting for me. Here I can for example see a vague percentage of how many other white European actors own a equity membership. Or it tells me how many Equity members earn how much within a year. It is all very interesting. For an organisation that is not even used by more than half of the people that took part in the survey equity is very active. But then I guess not having to use them is a good thing as well, so good job equity for not directly being needed in the first place.
All very interesting and good to read. Now is there anything new ?
Not really, at least not to a third year drama student who listened for the last two and a half years to what its teachers and tutors are saying. Those people already know that most actors don’t earn enough money to live from just their acting jobs. we also know that a lot of work is completely unpaid and that sexual harassment and bullying are a thing. I don’t want to sound harsh or rude, but I heard it a lot, we all heard it a lot. If there is someone on this course or any other honest and good theater course who does not know about this, then I would advice a pair of hearing aids without being a doctor. I also think that with the amount that we heard it now, no one will be surprised anymore if, when we all stumble into this industry a few of us experience these difficulties and problems. And this is maybe where the biggest danger lies.
With topics like bullying, unpaid work and sexual harassment so widely spread and somehow tolerated as side effects of the industry we sometimes seem to lose the connection to the fact that those things should not happen. Ever. We might start to feel that “well, that’s just how it is, nothing we can do about it.” I think this is where Equity comes in and where their relentless work shows, by reminding us with campaigns and examples that it is not okay and should not be treated as the norm. Now, as always, the final piece of work is on us, to change and speak out, to not accept non payed jobs unless we totally have to and to keep up new standards that will make our lives and work more easy in the future.
So thank you Equity for this survey. It gave me some insights that I did not know in such depth and I found more exact numbers for things like foreign actors and percentages of work an actor does in the different fields like Acting, Voice over, Television etc. it gave me a slightly better overview over things that are yet to come. I was however not surprised about the problems it showed up, but it is good to know that there are people who are aware of them and try to change them as best as they can.