My Hourly Rate

Let's do some math.

Say I'm in a production that pays a measley $400.00. This is more than most theatres in the Bay Area will pay a non-AEA actor, and far less than I should be paid for what I bring to the table. But it's right in the middle of the shallow end of the pool, so let's go with that number.

The total number of days committed to the project: 43 (including rehearsals and performances).

Owing to schedule conflicts, the first month of rehearsal -- we'll call it October -- sees me at only six rehearsals; we'll assume there were eight, but that I was very sick with a flu and missed two. In that first month, most rehearsals only go about three hours. So six days at three hours a day = 18 hours.

Month two we'll call November. Seventeen rehearsals, three previews, four performances = Twenty-four days at four hours per day = 96 hours.

Month three follows under the name December. Eleven performances at four hours per day = 44 hours.

Total hours: 158

$400.00 / 158 = $2.53 per hour. If the show extends, adding, say, four performances, it pushes the total hours to 174, which = $2.29 per hour.

When I first did the math for this theoretical project, I did it by hand and came to 168 hours, which = $2.38 per hour. So let's take that, since it's in between the lower and higher hourly rates above.

First off, a tank of gas is worth more than my hourly rate for this theoretical production.

Second, it costs $5.55 one-way from Dublin/Pleasanton BART to the Embarcadero, then two dollars to catch the #2, 3 or 4 which will take me to the corner of, say, Sutter and Gough, two theoretical blocks away from my potential destination. So that's $7.55 one-way, $15.10 round-trip.

$15.10 per day at 43 days = $649.30

However, several of the rehearsals took place in Berkeley and Oakland; to those rehearsals I drove; my car gets 430 miles per one tank of gas, the gas tank holds about 12 gallons: 430 / 12 = 35.83 gallons. We'll call that 36 mpg.

Remembering that this is all theoretical:
Let's say the three Berkeley rehearsals took place at the CalShakes rehearsal space, 37.7 miles from my house; we'll call that 38 miles, so 76 miles round-trip x 3 = 228 miles. So getting to and from those rehearsals each day would have cost me 2.11 gallons of gas, at an average of $2.76 per gallon at Costco, that comes to roughly $5.83 per day = $17.48

Imagine with me now that there were five Oakland rehearsals, 34.1 miles from my house, 68.2 miles round-trip x 5 = 341 miles. 341 / 36 = 9.47 gallons x $2.76 per gallon = $26.14

San Francisco rehearsals and performances necessitate a drive to BART Dublin/Pleasanton. That's 9.7 miles from my house, 19.4 miles round-trip. 34 days without an extension, 38 if this theoretical show extends. Without the extension: 19.4 x 33 = 659.6 miles @ 36 mpg = 18.32 gallons @ $2.76 per gallon = $50.57

Total Gasoline Expenditure: $94.19

Guessing that some cast or crew members might live in Berkeley or Oakland, let's pretend that someone can drop me off at West Oakland Bart every night after rehearsal/performance. So that means that it's $7.55 to get to the theatre, then $4.10 from West Oakland to Dublin/Pleasanton. Total: $11.65 per day.

Total Public Transportation Expenditure: $396.10

Total Transportation Cost for this Production: $490.29

So I am currently $90.29 away from just breaking even. I'm reporting my measley income for this show to EDD, so it's subtracted from my bi-weekly Unemployment Check. The reason I'm reporting it is so that I can justifiably claim my transportation and business meals as business expenses -- which they most assuredly are -- which brings me to another delicious point: the California Mileage Reimbursement Rate.

The 2009 IRS California Mileage Reimbursement Rate (CAMRR) is $.55 per mile. My total mileage for this show -- if we don't extend -- will be 1,228 miles. At .55 per mile, that comes to $675.40. Now, I'm not an employee of the theoretical company; I'm an independent contractor. So it's not a question of whether or not they have to reimburse me, they don't have to: it's not in my contract. Why is it not in my contract? Because I didn't do the math until now. It's just an interesting point to add to our theoretical calculations. Besides, there's probably some technicality that cuts it down or negates this point. There's always a technicality.

If the CAMRR replaced the Gasoline Expenditure and then added to the Public Transportation cost it would bring my total pay up to $1071.50. Frankly, that is much more like what I should be paid for this production.

Hmmm ...

$1071.50 - 400.00 = 671.50.

It would seem that the CAMRR is not just about gas, but also about wear and tear on the car. Damn, I sure could use that money: my brakes have worn down to nothing and grinding metal on metal is all I get whenever I drive. This is bad. I am risking my life every day I perform in this show. And for what? Leslie Martinson and Robert Kelley and Tony Taccone and Amy Potozkin are not coming to see the show. Ian McKellen was not in the audience the other night, Stephen Sondheim doesn't wander around San Francisco looking for low-budget Harry Chapin musicals to attend. I took this job to work with the superb director and to take the challenge of a one-man show, because I know that that stuff never happens: ain't nobody gonna come see the show and whisk anybody away to the fame and fortune they wish they could have. But that seems to be the overriding hope in every non-AEA actor's mind: "Maybe someone famous will see me and realize how wonderful I am, and then Steven Spielberg will be my friend!"

It reminds me of a song from Robbie Williams' SWING WHEN YOU'RE WINNING:

"I wouldn't be so alone
If they knew my name in every home
Kevin Spacey would call on the phone
But I'd be too busy
Come back to the old five and dime
Cameron Diaz give me a sign
I'd make you smile all the time
Your conversation would compliment mine

I will talk and Hollywood will listen
See them bow at my every word
Mr Spielberg look just what you're missing
Doesn't that seem a little absurd
Bow at my every word"

This could be the anthem of every small-time, small-town American theatre actor. Nobody wants to admit it, but the above is the crystallization of what is in everyone's hearts when they take a great role for shitfuck or zero pay. And on a certain level, all directors and producers in regional theatre know this. It's why local actors carry spears at Theatreworks while New York actors get the leads. It's what makes Waiting For Guffman so very, very funny and, ultimately, so incredibly sad.

When will we decide not to take the shit pay anymore? Is joining the union all it takes? Because Equity doesn't have the biggest balls, as unions go, and I know a lot of Equity actors in the Bay Area who no longer get any work now that they're in the union -- the houses who used to regularly hire them can get a non-AEA actor for peanuts or free, so why should they pay a big fish?

I'd love to say we should band together and fight for our rights and demand more pay or better roles or kick out the NY actors. But local actors are thoroughly cowed by high rents and exhausting day jobs. Nobody wants to rock this boat as it slowly, slowly sinks.

Update: The same theoretical company has theoretically offered me an awesome role in an awesome show; I've been theoretically offered $800.00. Let's do the math:

4 weeks of rehearsal at 5 days a week and 4 hours a day = 80 hours of rehearsal. Does this include Tech? Prolly not, so add a week of Tech: 80 hours of rehearsal + 20 hours of Tech = 100 hours before we see an audience.

So, if the show runs, say, September 17 - October 31, that's 22 performances. At three hours per performance, my total hours on the show would be: 122 hours. 

So: $800.00 / 122 hours = $6.55 per hour. Current Minimum Wage is $8.00 per hour. Yikes. If I were paid Minimum Wage for rehearsals and performances, it would come to $976.00. Call it an even $1,000.00 and we're just ducky.

We're also not likely.

So this adds a wrinkle. 

 

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