I am a Constant Clown, a Sometimes Actor and I will be Paid.

Eleanor of Aquitane (Teri Pena Ross) and King Henry II (Alan Ross) in James Goldman's "The Lion in Winter", directed by John O'Niel.


This evening Pammy and I ,plus our friend Charles Mascilli, will be going to see a play; specifically, The Lion in Winter, by The Classic Theater of San Antonio at The Sterling Houston Theater located in the Blue Star Art Complex in downtown San Antonio.

We'd been away from San Antonio since 1994 and then settled in Dallas after we left the circus. When we moved back to San Antonio in 2002 Pammy and I tried to get some theater work. Back in the nineties there were a number of theaters and other venues where an actor/performer could make a living.

So, upon our return years later we found out the situation here was a little different for actors.There was an abundance of theaters to keep an actor busy but as it turned out they paid very little or seldom if ever paid. There was one that could easily pay but it was and remains a "closed house" using their company of players while only on a rare occasion auditioning outside actors for their shows.

I went to a few auditions at various theaters and got into the habit of asking about the actor's salary for the run of the play. I got some interesting answers. Some said it would depend on how much the box office took in for the run but first they had to take care of their daily expenditures before taking care of their actors. One person I spoke to said, quite nonchalantly, that they paid you if they felt you were working hard enough for them and if they liked you. Others just say that they can't pay because they can't afford it. Some theaters want you to hang around so they can get used to you, I guess.

There was one place,though, a university, that had a budget for an original play where the director made it a point of saying how the actors should be grateful they were being paid. Small minds breed large egos sometimes.

For those San Antonio actors who haven't worked elsewhere this would probably appear to be the norm in theater and thus not try to change things for the better. Actors want to be on stage as often as possible here as they would in any other town with a theater community. But it shouldn't have to be a hobby. Pammy and I have made a decent living as professional actors and variety arts performers for years working with small and large theaters (both profit and non profit) as well as circuses, fairs, film and t.v.

I have not seen a play, out of principal, for the last eight years. I didn't want to give the theater owners money that I knew would not be distributed in an equitable fashion amongst the cast and crew.But in the spirit of hope and change I'll be going to the play I mentioned at the beginning of my post by the theater that produced last year's "Waiting for Godot", which Pammy saw and enjoyed. I'm really hoping this will be a theater company that produces good work and pays their actors well.

If the contrary is true then I'll probably be at the concession stand during intermission getting drinking cheap wine in order to endure the second half and drown the guilt I'll feel for watching poorly paid actors doing what they love mostly as a hobby. Sounds pretty dramatic, huh? Sorry if I sound bitter but it's for good reason and I do hope I'm wrong and it'll be a great show whose memory will be imprinted within my synaptic connections after tonight. For now I'm cautiously optimistic. I'll keep you posted.