Virtual Salon #29: Pay Equity in the Theatre Industry
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The need for pay equity in the theatre industry across job titles and areas of work is crucial for a more sustainable theatre ecosystem. This ongoing fight has been amplified by the challenges faced by theater workers throughout the pandemic. As many of us prepare to begin working in-person, new challenges will arise as organizations cry “scarcity” as an excuse for lower fees and lack of transparency. What can each of us do to ensure that the theatre industry in the USA moves forward with practices that sustain us, both artistically and financially?
Join Wingspace and HowlroundTV for a roundtable discussion with Elizabeth Wislar, Wu Chen Khoo, and Kimie Nishikawa about how we can embrace our shared responsibility to hold institutions accountable and advocate where we have agency. Moderated by Elsa Hiltner.
Thursday, July 22nd, 8-10pm ET via Zoom, HowlroundTV and Facebook Live via WS Facebook
Register in advance for this salon:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvdeitrDoqH9DKsKRl-2N18TFsOpd7MEfV
Elsa Hiltner is a costume designer and a writer and organizer on labor and pay equity issues in theatrical design based in Chicago. She is a co-founder of On Our Team and director of development at Collaboraction. Theatrical design credits include Collaboraction, Silk Road Rising, Teatro Vista, Signal Ensemble, American Blues Theater, Steppenwolf, First Folio Theatre, Next Act Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, and Windy City Playhouse, among others. She holds a BA from Western Washington University. For more information and speaking availability visit www.elsahiltner.com.
Wu Chen Khoo is a lighting designer, stagehand, production manager, technical director, and labour organizer based in the Twin Cities area. Over the past 18 years, he has fostered great working relationships with a large and diverse cross-section of the dance, theatre, opera and event companies in the Twin Cities. Besides being a co-founder of the education and outreach program Technical Tools of the Trade, he is also a founding member of the Class & the Arts collective (www.facebook.com/ClassandtheArts), an informal group of arts workers and organizers working to build Solidarity and promote critical engagement with issues of social justice, fair and just access and equity in and through the arts & entertainment industry.
Kimie Nishikawa is a Japanese scenic designer based in NYC. She moved to the United States with her family at the age of 2, growing up there until the age of 10. After graduating from Sophia University (Tokyo, Japan) with a degree in The English Language, she pursued a career in theater that first started out as an after school activity in college. Along with Cha See and Rodrigo Muñoz, Kimie is one of the co-founders of See Lighting Foundation, a grassroots organization committed to supporting immigrant theater artists during the global pandemic.
Elizabeth Wislar Elizabeth Wislar is a Costume Design and Technology Professional, a Large Scale Textile and Integrated Technology Artist, an Instructor at James Madison University, a Wage Equity Warrior, and a member of the Northern Cherokee Nation, Chickamauga.
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HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based peer produced, open access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world's performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email tv@howlround.com, or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal/WhatsApp. View the video archive of past events.