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NEWS & LETTERS, APRIL 2003
Musicians shut down Broadway
New York--Supported by the stage hands and actors
unions, musicians striking on Broadway shut down most shows the weekend of March
8. Despite area financial losses and inconvenience, the musicians were quite
strongly supported by the public and the media. Fighting the producers principally over the minimum
number of orchestra players, until now the New York local was the only one in
the U.S. which had not succumbed to the mechanized (canned music) takeover of
the musical theater genre, which has cost countless musicians their livelihood. On Sunday night March 9, both sides were summoned by
Mayor Bloomberg. Within 24 hours a deal was negotiated costing the musicians
about a third of their jobs plus other major concessions. This deal is
profoundly disturbing and tragic for the union membership, but will most likely
be ratified anyway, since they generally recognize that another strike at this
time would not be supported by the public. --Supporter * * * The robots have arrived. There they are, standing in the
wings, their ugly threatening presence an insult to our very human being.
Virtual music indeed! Behind demands that the size of theater orchestras be
cut are profit and financial gain. Behind them is the robot, the machine that
would punish the live musician for questioning these demands. The labor strike
is the time-honored means of countering the encroachments of the entrepreneur,
but theater owners and management say: "Thou shalt not strike. If you do,
the robot will play the music for you." In solidarity the stage hands turned off the lights. The
actors made their exits, and theater of entertainment became theater of protest. The name of the opera is "Class Struggle." The
second act is over. The robot, portrayed by a eunuch with a prosthetic heart and
brain, is ready to sing everyone else's part, to work the lights, to play in the
pit. Act III hasn't been written yet, but I believe the
people will prevail--work will be art, and art will be work, and the robot will
bleed ink, oil and plutonium unto death. --Local 802 member |
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