Actors' Equity Association President Nick Wyman spoke at AEA's centennial celebration in St. Louis on Monday, November 25, 2013, and BroadwayWorld has his full speech below!
"Here we are at the Grand Finale, the big St. Louis Equity Centennial celebration, and you are waiting for the special, one of a kind, tailored just for St. Louis, Equity centennial speech - a single-use, throwaway, ecologically irresponsible logorrheic rodomontade specifically for your benefit. You are expecting (perhaps dreading) the bloviation of that ozone-threatening gasbag Nick Wyman as he cranks out the verbiage, pumping up the oratory with never a thought to the environmental impact of his verbal footprint.
"Well, surprise! I am a changed man, and we are now a green organization. So here's how it's going to work: my daughter is getting married. And because as I look around, nobody here is invited to the wedding -- I'm just going to recycle my Father of the Bride speech. It works because my feelings toward my children -- love, protectiveness, concern and pride -- are exactly the same as my feelings for the members of AEA.
"A wedding is an extended family celebration. It is a celebration of the past, of the historical family, the generations that have gone into producing the ceremony's two st-- central actors (I won't say the two stars because my wife Beth has made it clear to me that the two stars of the wedding are the bride and the Mother of the Bride.) And the ceremony is a celebration of the future, of family yet-to-come -- at least for this hopeful grandfather-to-be.
"Tonight is also an extended Family Celebration. It is a celebration of the Actors' Equity Family; it is a celebration of the St. Louis Theater Family. It is a celebration of the past, of what we have done, of our historical family; it is a celebration of our family yet-to-come, of what we will do, of the future.
"That Future is why I am here, why I am visiting every city in the U.S. that has 100 or more AEA members. Not to give you the benefit of my wisdom: you could hold that in a thimble. And not because I have the Answer. And not because I expect you to have the Answer. But I do expect you to have questions. I expect you to have comments and concerns, some complaints, maybe even a couple compliments. Bring them on: I'm here to listen.
"We are here to give you a sense of who I am and, more importantly, who Mary McColl is. You sort of know me from my columns in the Equity News, but get to know Mary tonight. Sidle up to her, talk to her, listen to her. She is an extraordinary gift to our Association. Although she has spent her career mostly with management on the other side of the bargaining table, she is a better union thug than I am.
"The Council and staff are going to be making changes as we move into our future. When we communicate those changes, I want you to have faith in your elected officials and faith in your staff. In the face of a business that generally says "Thanks but no thanks" and that can all-too-easily make you think you don't matter, a business that shows you little respect and makes it nearly impossible to cobble together a livelihood that has a significant component of acting or stage management work, I want you to know that you ARE respected and that you do matter. You matter to me, to matter to Mary, and you matter to the Association.
"In terms of respect, over the past century Actors' Equity has had to earn the respect of not only producers and theatre owners and employers but also that of actors and stage managers. First we had to convince actors that they were better off working together and speaking with one voice. Then we had to convince them to trust Equity to represent them. That trust and respect is something we never take for granted and something we work every day to be worthy of.
"One hundred years ago, actors received very little respect. To the public, they were ne'er-do-well vagrants, a collection of con men, clowns and loose women. To the theater owners and managers of the day, they were, aside from a small handful of name actors who needed to be cared for, a vast ocean of chattel -- insignificant, fungible, utterly replaceable performers. Actors were never paid for rehearsals. They were expected to pay for and provide their own costumes (God help you if you were a woman in a period drama.) If a show failed out of town, it was up to the actor to figure out and pay for his way home. Actors were disposable parts.
"To combat this, the actors -- despite the scoffing of employers who saw them as irresponsible, self-centered, narcissistic children -- banded together one hundred years ago in 1913. Well-known actors such as Francis Wilson, our first AEA President -- who was sort of the Nathan Lane of his day, joined together with their less well-situated brethren to form a united front that -- thanks to the month-long strike of 1919 -- achieved the acceptance by the producers of the Equity contract.
"Over the years we have continued to band together to help one another. The better-known, better-paid actors have cast their lot with less-fortunate actors so that all actors are protected and taken care of. And as the business has changed from an industry based solely on Broadway productions and their resultant tours to one that includes stock theatres, dinner theatres, LORT theatres and a panoply of "Small Professional Theatres" in a multitude of shapes and modest sizes, Equity has changed along with the industry. With the flexibility of a gymnast, the tenacity of a bulldog and the patience of, if not a saint, at least a nicer person than I am, Equity staff has brought the protection of Equity rules and working conditions to thousands of theaters nationwide.
"But we have not merely taken care of ourselves. AEA has been at the social forefront, fighting selflessly and courageously against the blacklist and against segregation, and on behalf of those suffering from AIDS, on behalf of workers' rights, and on behalf of marriage equality.
"When I think of the history of our union, how actors and stage managers risked their livelihoods and careers to stand up to their employers and demand fair treatment, I am proud. When I think how these same AEA members -- most of whom are pretty far down the socio-economic scale -- have taken the time and energy from their own personal struggles to work for and help others, I am moved.
"I think of Tom Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath" saying "Maybe I can do somethin', maybe I can just find out somethin', just scrounge around and maybe find out what it is that's wrong and see if they ain't somethin' that can be done about it....Maybe a fellow ain't got a soul of his own, just a little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody... Then it don't matter. I'll be all around in the dark -- I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look -- wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there."
"And I think of Ma Joad's final lines: "We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out; they can't lick us. We'll go on forever, Pa, because we're the people."
"I see Equity as a sort of Tom Joad: wherever actors and stage managers need help, we'll be there -- a ubiquitous presence supporting the downtrodden, a force for good in the struggle to create Live Theater. Because creating Live Theater is a struggle, not just for actors but for all of us.
"But in the midst of this struggle, in the midst of what sometimes seems like a Dust Bowl, remember this: Each of us is part of a big soul, part of the extended Theater Family. We're the people. We're the people that live. We're the people that do Live Theater; and we will go on forever."
Actors' Equity Association ("AEA" or "Equity"), founded May 26, 1913, represents nearly 17,000
professional stage actors and stage managers living and working in the state of New York, with more
than 49,000 members nationwide. To coincide with the labor union's 100th anniversary, Mayor Michael
R. Bloomberg issued an official proclamation declaring Sunday, May 26, 2013 as "Actors' Equity Day" in
New York City. Last June, AEA received the 2012 Special Tony Award to mark its momentous centennial
milestone. Visit www.ActorsEquity.org for more.
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