I don't say that to denigrate non-union talent, but they haven't had the years of experience and the training that would raise their talent. I heard one anecdote that it took one actor 200 takes to get a thirty-second line down. But 200 takes is not business as usual. If the actors lose this fight, and if they're right in suggesting that the advertisers' proposed contract would mean a tightening of belts for their whole profession, one long-term effect for Chicago could be on our bustling theater community. Agents, casting directors, storefront theater.
People now come to Chicago because they can make a middle-class living as an actor.
Carrie Kaufman, publisher of the local trade paper PerformInk, notes the same possibility. They seed each other, theater and commercial work. If actors don't have to have a day job or can just temp and fill things in with commercial work, then they can have more time do theater. They don't have to go from an eight-hour day job to rehearsal at night and kill themselves. If they're not making that work they might step back from doing theater.