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College and Graduate Studies / Re: Equity Courses
« on: Nov 04, 2006, 03:15 pm »
I teach a course on Equity at the University of Iowa. I offer it every other year for the graduate stage managers and a couple of the advanced undergraduate students. Matthew is absolutely correct that the students want to tear out their eyes by the time they are done. The course is focused on American regional theatres: we spend the first 6 weeks studying the history of AEA and the regional theatre scene and individual companies. We then use the last 10 weeks of the course to go through the AEA/LORT agreement line by line. I supplement the readings with older copies of the LORT agreement to show how the regulations have evolved and I use the production contract to show how items will filter down from that set of negotiations.
One of the goals of my class is to be completely familiar with the handbook. I don't expect students to memorize the rules since they will vary by contract and will evolve through negotiations. The class final is a timed open-book test: I give you a show and you write how you would handle situations ranging from workweeks through raked stages through personal wardrobe rentals through mistakes on the houseboard, etc. (I don't want to go into too much detail as my students read these threads.). There is no substitute for apprenticing in an Equity company, but the course hopefully the course will reduce the intimidation of opening the book and to see it as an evolving agreement rather than rules written in stone.
One of the goals of my class is to be completely familiar with the handbook. I don't expect students to memorize the rules since they will vary by contract and will evolve through negotiations. The class final is a timed open-book test: I give you a show and you write how you would handle situations ranging from workweeks through raked stages through personal wardrobe rentals through mistakes on the houseboard, etc. (I don't want to go into too much detail as my students read these threads.). There is no substitute for apprenticing in an Equity company, but the course hopefully the course will reduce the intimidation of opening the book and to see it as an evolving agreement rather than rules written in stone.