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The Hardline / AEA LORT COSTUME FITTINGS
« on: Sep 25, 2014, 01:49 am »
I sent this to some people directly . . .
So, today, I went crazy, and realized I may have been doing something “wrong” per AEA. And I wanted to see how you, the theaters you have worked at in the past, or your current theater deal with this particular issue.
I have a pending ruling with my current AEA business rep, who should remain nameless.
Issue – Costume Fittings
Contract LORT
Rule In Question:
(b) After the Beginning of Rehearsals.
In addition to rehearsal time, but within the maximum hours of the workweek as outlined in section (A), the Theatre may schedule a combined total of no more than seven hours for costume and/or photo and/or media calls per production.
Costume calls must be consecutive with the rehearsal hours as specified in section (A) and must be calculated in segments of no less than ˝ hour. Combined rehearsal and costume calls may reach a maximum of six consecutive hours without a break.
Current show: I have a maximum rehearsal week of 42, with a work week of 45.
So, let’s just out line some important numbers . . .
I have 3 hours outside of rehearsal that count to the work week, these reset every week.
I have 7 hours for costume/photo/media calls per production.
The sentence that I am wrestling over is . . .
Costume calls must be consecutive with the rehearsal hours
I have always read that (and had a previous verbal ruling to back me up, from a business rep, who is no longer a business rep) as to mean all of the costume fittings scheduled prior to rehearsal, need to be consecutive to the call. So, this rule would not allow you to do costume fittings from 8:00a – 10:00a and then do a rehearsal call from 3:00p to midnight.
So, for this example, let’s say the rehearsal day is 12:00n – 8:30p (7 hours plus 1.5 hour break, the full amount allowed on a musical.) Let us say for this example, the full cast is always called.
I get a request for 4, 30-minute costume fittings for Friday.
One reading of the rule would have me able to schedule
10:00a – 10:30, 10:30a – 11:00, 11:00 – 11:30a, 11:30a – 12:00n, and then rehearsal. Since these costume fittings, as a group, are consecutive to the rehearsal hours, we are fine. Each person would deduct 30 minutes from their “work week hours”, and 30 minutes from their “seven hours”.
The debate we got in today (and it doesn’t matter who the debate was with), was as follows, “No . . . any fitting that is NOT right before the rehearsal, would be paid as over time”; so in my above example, the 10a, 10:30a, and 11a fittings would be paid as overtime. Thus you can have only one costume fitting per day prior to the rehearsal.
How do you deal with this – trying to serve the show, as well as being a good steward of the theater’s money?
My work around solution would be as following . . .
For the extreme example from my outline of the day would be - For the 10:00a – 10:30a fitting, we would deduct the 30 minutes from the work week, and the 30 minutes from their seven hours for press/fittings/etc. And then the time between 10:30a and 12:00n – 90 minutes – we would deduct from their work week hours - so those get burned up. (I feel pretty strongly it doesn’t come out rehearsal hours.)
Has anyone gone around about this? (and I am interested in west coast versus east coast in particular)
So, today, I went crazy, and realized I may have been doing something “wrong” per AEA. And I wanted to see how you, the theaters you have worked at in the past, or your current theater deal with this particular issue.
I have a pending ruling with my current AEA business rep, who should remain nameless.
Issue – Costume Fittings
Contract LORT
Rule In Question:
(b) After the Beginning of Rehearsals.
In addition to rehearsal time, but within the maximum hours of the workweek as outlined in section (A), the Theatre may schedule a combined total of no more than seven hours for costume and/or photo and/or media calls per production.
Costume calls must be consecutive with the rehearsal hours as specified in section (A) and must be calculated in segments of no less than ˝ hour. Combined rehearsal and costume calls may reach a maximum of six consecutive hours without a break.
Current show: I have a maximum rehearsal week of 42, with a work week of 45.
So, let’s just out line some important numbers . . .
I have 3 hours outside of rehearsal that count to the work week, these reset every week.
I have 7 hours for costume/photo/media calls per production.
The sentence that I am wrestling over is . . .
Costume calls must be consecutive with the rehearsal hours
I have always read that (and had a previous verbal ruling to back me up, from a business rep, who is no longer a business rep) as to mean all of the costume fittings scheduled prior to rehearsal, need to be consecutive to the call. So, this rule would not allow you to do costume fittings from 8:00a – 10:00a and then do a rehearsal call from 3:00p to midnight.
So, for this example, let’s say the rehearsal day is 12:00n – 8:30p (7 hours plus 1.5 hour break, the full amount allowed on a musical.) Let us say for this example, the full cast is always called.
I get a request for 4, 30-minute costume fittings for Friday.
One reading of the rule would have me able to schedule
10:00a – 10:30, 10:30a – 11:00, 11:00 – 11:30a, 11:30a – 12:00n, and then rehearsal. Since these costume fittings, as a group, are consecutive to the rehearsal hours, we are fine. Each person would deduct 30 minutes from their “work week hours”, and 30 minutes from their “seven hours”.
The debate we got in today (and it doesn’t matter who the debate was with), was as follows, “No . . . any fitting that is NOT right before the rehearsal, would be paid as over time”; so in my above example, the 10a, 10:30a, and 11a fittings would be paid as overtime. Thus you can have only one costume fitting per day prior to the rehearsal.
How do you deal with this – trying to serve the show, as well as being a good steward of the theater’s money?
My work around solution would be as following . . .
For the extreme example from my outline of the day would be - For the 10:00a – 10:30a fitting, we would deduct the 30 minutes from the work week, and the 30 minutes from their seven hours for press/fittings/etc. And then the time between 10:30a and 12:00n – 90 minutes – we would deduct from their work week hours - so those get burned up. (I feel pretty strongly it doesn’t come out rehearsal hours.)
Has anyone gone around about this? (and I am interested in west coast versus east coast in particular)