Equity Out The Window

 The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is located in a beautiful mountain town in Ashland, OR. The town used to be somewhat of a hippy sanctuary with new age thought and ramshackle art all over town. There are hints of its past, but mostly it is a town full of millionaires and billionaires. The rental cost is on on par with LA and New York. There is very little housing available. I live in a cute trailer park actually just out side of town. Enough so that I do not get to vote for the Mayor of the town. 

So how can a theater located amongst such socio-economic disparity claim to be fighting for equity? There is a phrase on the West coast you will hear "manifest". Most of the folks are paid well at the theater that work in production with much need for wardrobe and backstage folks to get a pay increase across the board with inflation going up and the cost of living being such a burden. 

I have strong thoughts on sharing my wage in a work space along with my knowledge and being a fighter for equity in that space. I feel as a human it is important to insure that work load and responsibility are a reflection of pay. Yesterday all of the people under the same job title as me told each other our pay rates and there is no equity.

No Equity, the person with the highest pay rate carries the lightest load and only works four days a week while getting paid around $4 dollars more that the least paid person in the room. The second highest paid person said they did not negotiate their pay but just was assign a rate and assumed everyone was making the same money. The next tier of pay two people get the same amount myself and a coworker that has been working there longer than anyone else in the room. The fifth person doesn't even have the proper title and has more skill than I do in a variety specialties. They get paid the least.

I want to be clear that I am not mad about the amount of money I make as I am not a capitalist. I am mad about the inconsistency and seemingly lack of clarity of why folks make different rates. It is emblematic of bad management from the core. I am sad because I thought the company was moving into a more just working style. I am also not mad that folks make more than I do, I just want it to make sense.

Please make it make sense.... 

A Step into the Future

 Well it has been a while with a pandemic of never ending proportions. I have to pay my dues for being allowed into the middle class for a year. I moved into a sweet vintage trailer (1964 New Moon) on the edge of town in Ashland, OR. I was working at the what I considered to be the top of my field painting and dying costumes for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I had a great year from September 2018 till March 2020. I made the most amount of money in my life and did the most amount of traveling. I was flying high on the hog.

In November of 2018 I went to Thailand and saw a beautiful country and beautiful people. I should have just stayed there! I drove across the country to get the dogs to Ashland. The vastness of the dessert and wildness of Wyoming, so awesome. My wonderful friend drove back with me and we stopped in Santa Fe and saw a 365 degree sunset. We also stopped in San Fransisco and I had the best crescent of my life. 

I learned so much my first year as the only painter/dyer at OSF. I used a large format vinyl cutter and mastered the airbrush, did some screen printing and designed fabric digitally to be printed. So much that I had only touched on in the past of my theater work. I was just starting to really feel in control of my work environment when all of theater was shuttered in March of 2020. I went from $24 an hour to $29 and hour with in a month of working after I realized that the company had hired me to do all of the work and there was no else to learn from. I was doing the job description for the higher paying position (When I applied I thought I was applying for the lead painting and dying position as there where two positions listed in their website.) The job descriptions where unclear and of course the pay amounts where not listed and I was douped. I hate not being in Union and having to fight for yourself all of the time....but here we are?Sweet, Sweet America...