NYTW Lays off Entire Production Staff?

Apparently, NYTW has laid off its entire production staff due to a board mandated $1mil reduction in operating expenses. H/T Lucas.

All I have to say so far is... WTF?

Wait, no, that's not true. I do have a little bit more to say.

In my "cliff's notes" to How Theatre Failed America I wroteabout a point Daisey was making, and that he makes again in his essay The Empty Spaces that there is an emphasis in non-profits on a corporate idea of growth heavily tied into building campaigns, and this emphasis comes at a cost of staff and sustainability.

If you doubted that this was going on, assuming the letter ecotheater published is on the level etc. we have a little microcosm of that right here. Again, according to Ecotheater:

What may be most confusing about all of this is NYTW’s seemingly unabated plans to build new scene and costume shop facilities according to LEED standards that were to be up and running sometime next year. What’s the point of having such facilities if there is no production manager, no technical director, and no costume shop manager? “The ground breaking ceremony for our LEED certified scenic/costume shop is slated for May 14th, though now there is no staff to run it,” Casselli said. “We might have to have some sort of protest about that. It is a huge slap in the face.”

This is less confusing, however, if one keeps in mind that in the move towards institutionalization, Non-profits stop investing in staff like they invest in buildings. So here we have a perfect example: NYTW is literally creating an empty space, a brand new state of the art LEED certified shop with no permanent staff to operate it. Wow. Theaters really are the pioneers of outsourcing. Can we come up with a new term for it? Maybe Artsourcing?

Comments

[Laura]

I wonder about the real reason for this... Obviously the Board saw a deficit in the balance sheet, but I always thought of NYTW as being a fiscally sound company. Are ticket sales down? Did they make bad investments along the way? I think the finding the "real reason" will give everyone a heads up as to what they should expect for other NY theater companies.

[Scott Walters]

How's about "suicide"?

[Laura]

Okay, Nevermind, It looks like my question has been answered at ecotheater:

"All of us in production are bearing the brunt of an organization which lacks the ability to enforce any thing resembling fiscal constraint with respects to the work that occurs here, as well as an organization which cannot effectively self govern its own desires."

I still want to know where the $ went... It's a nonprofit. How about some public accountability?

[Michael Casselli]

The staff was fired, the department eliminated, and restructuring ideas are to either hire seasonally of on a show by show basis.

[Michael Casselli]

The staff was fired, the department eliminated, and restructuring ideas are to either hire seasonally of on a show by show basis.

[anon]

As someone coming from a theatre where even the PM is freelance, was it really fiscally sound to have a salaried ME? That seems sort of odd. Not that it isn't fantastic for production staff to have salaries and benefits and be able to live livable lives. Just wondering if this ugly, drastic step is an abrupt normalization.

[Michael Casselli]

Anon,
To balance the labor of the theater on freelancers frees up the institution from providing basic coverage to a workforce that sorely needs the protections of benefits and job security. How is it normalizing to take those provisions away from the production staff but still think of it as status quo for administrators? By accepting these types of shifts in the landscape of the arts and the arts provides a complicity that in the long run benefits nothing but the bottom line. This is disgraceful, especially in a field that purports to examine the very culture that is allowing this change.

[Michael Casselli]

A bit of a typo there I didn't catch Should read "By accepting these types of shifts in the landscape of the arts we only provide a complicity that in the long run benefits nothing but the bottom line."
Should of done a preview before posting.

[anon]

I meant that maybe it wasn't NYTW becoming horrible, just sort of stopping being exemplary, and sinking to average.

[Rocco]

Could this have anything to do with RENT closing? Hasn't that been a major cash cow for NYTW for the past 10 years?

[anon]

It could have something to do with the money-wasting involved in bringing big name stars from Broadway, Hollywood, and Europe to do overpriced work that is ultimately mediocre.

NYTW should be focussed on bringing smaller independent companies that are self-contained and who actually have a vision, instead of hiring names to make garbage.

And yeah, it probably has to do with RENT closing.

[anon]

BRING THE UNION TO NYTW. It's time to organize.

[RobertK]

This whole "building new STUFF while we downsize" incident reminds me of a Manic Street Preachers lyric in "We Are All Bourgeois Now". Namely, "The people were grey, the buildings looked healthy".