Wendy Ishii made $1,000 a day acting on a soap opera.
She now makes $500 a month teaching theater at a state university, and $14,000 a year running Fort Collins' Bas Bleu, one of the region's most respected theater companies.
"That tells you how much we value teachers and artists in this country," said Ishii, who can keep managing her 16-year-old theater for one reason: "Because I am married to a neuroscientist who believes theater is just as important as curing Alzheimer's.
"But if I were a single mom, no way."
They used to say most actors in Colorado perform for gas money. But with the cost of fuel these days, not even that's true anymore.
Bas Bleu pays every actor $200 for the entire run of a play, "whether they
have one line or 10,000," said Ishii. Factoring in rehearsal and performance time, that's less than $1 an hour. And that's common.
Colorado has 97 theater companies, but only seven that belong to Actor's Equity, the union that mandates minimum salaries for its actors, of whom 327 live (but not many gainfully work) in Colorado.
Only about 150 people can claim to make full-time salaries in the theater here. And what they make varies greatly. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts employs 80 year-round theater workers, led by president Randy Weeks at $265,000, and theater company artistic director Kent Thompson at $205,001 (predecessor Donovan Marley made $339,767 in 2002).
The Denver Center hires about 50 seasonal actors, but they get paid only for the weeks they work. And only about eight of them get full seasons of work, which is about 36 weeks of pay.
"And we are the lucky ones," said Sam Gregory, who last summer was also a guest actor for the non-union Paragon Theatre's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf."
The Denver Center pays its actors minimums that range from $555 to $816 a week, as dictated by its contract with Actors Equity. Some make more. If they work enough weeks, they qualify for health insurance. That makes for a living, but is hardly an extravagant wage, said Gregory, who spent 20 years as an acting gypsy before finding a home with the Denver Center Theatre Company.
Smaller union theaters don't offer as many performances, so their minimums are lower. Curious Theatre must pay actors at least $250 a week; the Aurora Fox, $187. No union theater runs 52 weeks a year, but say the Aurora Fox did. If one actor managed to get cast in every show, he still wouldn't clear $10,000 for the year.
When Paragon landed Gregory, Equity set his wage at $3,400 for 10 weeks of work. That's far below his Denver Center pay, but it still necessitated a special fundraising campaign by Paragon's board. His onstage wife, played by nonunion actor Martha Harmon Pardee, made $300 — total.
Both won Denver Post Ovation Awards. That's how silly it is to try to equate artistic excellence with compensation.
Other companies tie wages to attendance. Germinal Stage-Denver pays a $150 minimum stipend against a percentage of the net, up to $450.
Buntport Theater recently became one of the state's few full-time professional ensembles. After years of paying themselves $19,000 a year and working as many second jobs as they could get, they decided enough's enough: Everyone gets $30,000 and works at Buntport full time.
"We consider ourselves very lucky, but we worked awfully hard to get to the point where we could make a living wage," said Erin Rollman. "But it was a necessary step in order for us to be true to our mission statement. Working full time at the theater means we will be able to do more and better work."
But the fact is, "most of the people you see in plays at night have spent their days working in an office or at a restaurant," said Gregory. "They do it for the love of it."
What choice do they have? With apologies to Beckett: They can't go on. They must go on.
She now makes $500 a month teaching theater at a state university, and $14,000 a year running Fort Collins' Bas Bleu, one of the region's most respected theater companies.
"That tells you how much we value teachers and artists in this country," said Ishii, who can keep managing her 16-year-old theater for one reason: "Because I am married to a neuroscientist who believes theater is just as important as curing Alzheimer's.
"But if I were a single mom, no way."
They used to say most actors in Colorado perform for gas money. But with the cost of fuel these days, not even that's true anymore.
Bas Bleu pays every actor $200 for the entire run of a play, "whether they
have one line or 10,000," said Ishii. Factoring in rehearsal and performance time, that's less than $1 an hour. And that's common.
Colorado has 97 theater companies, but only seven that belong to Actor's Equity, the union that mandates minimum salaries for its actors, of whom 327 live (but not many gainfully work) in Colorado.
Only about 150 people can claim to make full-time salaries in the theater here. And what they make varies greatly. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts employs 80 year-round theater workers, led by president Randy Weeks at $265,000, and theater company artistic director Kent Thompson at $205,001 (predecessor Donovan Marley made $339,767 in 2002).
The Denver Center hires about 50 seasonal actors, but they get paid only for the weeks they work. And only about eight of them get full seasons of work, which is about 36 weeks of pay.
"And we are the lucky ones," said Sam Gregory, who last summer was also a guest actor for the non-union Paragon Theatre's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf."
The Denver Center pays its actors minimums that range from $555 to $816 a week, as dictated by its contract with Actors Equity. Some make more. If they work enough weeks, they qualify for health insurance. That makes for a living, but is hardly an extravagant wage, said Gregory, who spent 20 years as an acting gypsy before finding a home with the Denver Center Theatre Company.
Smaller union theaters don't offer as many performances, so their minimums are lower. Curious Theatre must pay actors at least $250 a week; the Aurora Fox, $187. No union theater runs 52 weeks a year, but say the Aurora Fox did. If one actor managed to get cast in every show, he still wouldn't clear $10,000 for the year.
When Paragon landed Gregory, Equity set his wage at $3,400 for 10 weeks of work. That's far below his Denver Center pay, but it still necessitated a special fundraising campaign by Paragon's board. His onstage wife, played by nonunion actor Martha Harmon Pardee, made $300 — total.
Both won Denver Post Ovation Awards. That's how silly it is to try to equate artistic excellence with compensation.
Other companies tie wages to attendance. Germinal Stage-Denver pays a $150 minimum stipend against a percentage of the net, up to $450.
Buntport Theater recently became one of the state's few full-time professional ensembles. After years of paying themselves $19,000 a year and working as many second jobs as they could get, they decided enough's enough: Everyone gets $30,000 and works at Buntport full time.
"We consider ourselves very lucky, but we worked awfully hard to get to the point where we could make a living wage," said Erin Rollman. "But it was a necessary step in order for us to be true to our mission statement. Working full time at the theater means we will be able to do more and better work."
But the fact is, "most of the people you see in plays at night have spent their days working in an office or at a restaurant," said Gregory. "They do it for the love of it."
What choice do they have? With apologies to Beckett: They can't go on. They must go on.
