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Yes, @TheFleaTheater is terrible, but it’s not just the Flea.
It’s every business turning a profit on the backs of unpaid (or worse, paying to be there) early-career actors, taking advantage of their ambition, determination, and nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic.
It’s every overpriced “master class” that’s really just a pay-to-play audition. It’s every casting call that promises compensation in the form of “exposure.” (Exposure to whom? To what?)
It’s every emotionally abusive director that actors are told they’re “so lucky” to have the “privilege” of working with.
It’s the mega-business of BFA programs. It’s every time an actor is forced to decide between precious paid work hours and attending rehearsal.
It’s every theater that bills itself as a paragon of diversity and inclusion and then programs a season of plays written and directed by white men.
Exploitation is only natural in an industry that overwhelmingly favors wealth but romanticizes the notion of the “starving artist.” Gaslighting of BIPOC artists is only natural in an industry that favors flowery messages of solidarity over concrete, meaningful change.
These problems are metastatic. The Flea is a symptom. End rant.
