My work crosses a lot of different terrain within the world of live performance. I work on everything from small independently produced experimental pieces to high level assisting on Opera, and recently the Broadway tour of South Pacific, and everything in between. It seems to me that many people I work with, specifically the technicians, tend to stay within their own part of this world without much exposure to the other sides. Without exposure or familiarity one tends to create meaning and understanding through conjecture and rumor. The result are stereotypes.
Many freelance electricians I have worked with have a rather consistent view of union electricians. They see IA guys as lazy and disinterested. It seems that whenever the topic comes up there is someone on the crew who will talk about how lazy they are and how the “real” electricians are outside the union and so on and so forth. Upon a little bit of probing it often turns out that these people, who moments ago were so passionate in their truth, have never worked with union electricians or are thinking of a singular episode or a single person.
Union electricians have a curious view of the freelancers as well. While in my experience they tend to be more politic, that view boils down to freelancers being unskilled or not “real” electricians. Again, upon further investigation these observations often come down to “that one guy at an open call” or “back when I was in college.”
The truth, as is so often the case, lies somewhere outside the stereotype itself. It is true that I have worked with union electricians who had to be coaxed and prodded to just move a simple ladder. I have also worked with freelance “electricians” who could barely plug a light in. At the same time some of the most dedicated, proactive, and fastest, electricians I have worked with have been union. I am thinking here, specifically, of my time as lighting assistant for the San Francisco Opera, but experience has shown this same level of dedication and craft around the country. I have also worked with freelance electricians whose knowledge of electrical systems was so complete, whose skills were so developed, and whose programming knowledge so in depth, that I was in awe.
In my experience most people working in the entertainment industry are doing so out of love for the work. While this is most apparent in performers and other creatives, I find that it extends to everyone working on the show including technicians, admin, box office, and even maintenance. The work is never easy and the pay is never enough. At any level.
While I understand where these stereotypes come from, I am skeptical that they provide us with any benefit other than topics of chit chat over coffee. Sure I have worked with union guys who seem to do nothing but stand around. But I have met those same guys in independent freelance situations as well. The lazy electrician can exploit union rules to great affect. At the same time, the ignorant and untalented can exploit the freelance situation’s need to simply get people in the door to an easy, almost undeserved, paycheck.
In the interest of creating better quality work, and a more positive environment, it seems of greater import to focus on the quality of the work itself. The talent pool we have on any given project is what it is. And that is often quite varied. Unless something drastic happens, it will remain that way. What is important for us to do is take an honest stock of who we have, and what their skill set is, and make the best use of it.
The next time we find ourselves making assumptions abut the skill level or dedication of our fellow workers in the entertainment industry we might want to ask ourselves where those feelings originate from. Is the freelancer calling union guys lazy because she is tired from all the hustling? Is the IA guy calling the freelancer incompetent because he is exhausted from all those extra training sessions he has attended every weekend for the last month?
Often when we find ourselves criticizing or blaming others it is an inversion of what is going on inside of us. Recognizing the origins of these stereotypes and moving on from there can allow us to focus back on the work and make the best show possible.
Tags: electricians, stereotypes, work
