'Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production' Book Will Be Released This Month

Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production will be released by Focus Press/Routledge on April 29, 2024. Inspired by the worker-driven advocacy efforts of the recent years and their own work in theatrical production, authors Brídín Clements Cotton and Natalie Robin investigate the past, present and future of theatrical production practices, from the little-known history of the labor unions involved, through the present-day common abuses of workers, towards a future with more equitable and sustainable career paths.

With the upcoming release of the book, the authors will be participating in a number of events in New York City and Philadelphia to discuss the issues surrounding their research.
 

Theatre Work investigates both the history and current realities of life and work in professional theatrical production in the United States and explores labor practices that are equitable, accessible, and sustainable. Written with members of the theatrical production workplace, leaders of theatrical institutions and productions, labor organizers, and industry union leaders in mind, Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production speaks to the ways that employers and workers can collaborate around a sustainable future.

In this book, Brídín Clements Cotton and Natalie Robin investigate the question of artmaking, specifically theatrical production, as work. When the art is the work, how do employers navigate the balance between creative freedom and these equitable, accessible, and sustainable personnel processes? How do theatrical production operations value the worker? Through data analyses, worker narratives, and analogues to the evolving gig economy, Theatre Work questions everything about theatrical production work – including our shared history, ways of operating, and assumptions about how theatre is made. Theatre Work considers what might happen if the American Theatre was reborn in an entirely new form.