Interview with Chip Phillips, Equity Deputy for "Beauty and the Beast"
Transcript:
Chip: Want me to slate?
DB: Go ahead.
Chip: Hi, I’m Chip Phillips, uh, play Cogsworth in “Beauty and the Beast”. I’m the Equity Deputy on this show. It’s very exciting. What would you like to know?
DB: Um, I guess just talk in general about what an Equity Deputy is, what Equity is, what sort of rules Equity has and just sort of talk about, I guess, the theater, what attracted you to it, what keeps you interested, that sort of thing.
Asst. Stage Manager: We’re at five minutes!
DB: Thank you, five!
Chip: Thank you! The Deputy’s basically the liaison between I guess the stage manager and the cast, specifically the union actors. I guess if there’s a problem that affects non-union as well that should also be addressed. If there’s an issue in terms of overtime or safety, then I would bring that to the stage manager and she would bring it anonymously to management to protect whoever has the complaint. It doesn’t require a large amount of duties. There is a weekly time sheet that I used to fill out assiduously but apparently that’s not necessary and they don’t even look at them unless there’s overtime involved. This is not my real mustache, by the way. But I’ve uh, started acting, I guess, professionally, full time back in ’90 when I moved back to Boston from New York where I was doing some theater showcases, stopped, gave it up for a couple years. Boston’s actually a great market. I moved back to New York with my wife three years ago. I love coming back here. It’s a great, small community of actors so if you like someone you get to work with them again. If you don’t like someone you get to work with them again. It’s got its pluses and minuses.
DB: So, what exactly is Actor’s Equity?
Chip: It’s the union representing stage actors. I think it’s been around seventy-five years, or... I should know this. I think it predates Screen Actors Guild for film actors and AFTRA obviously for radio and television actors, and there’s also AGVA, American Guild of Variety Artists, which is a leftover from the vaudeville days and covers some cabaret and like little wierd performances sometimes...
DB: There’s also one specific for -- specifically for Italian-American actors
Chip: Really?
DB: It’s one of the sister unions
Chip: That’s very -- I did not know that, how strange. But actually I’m a big fan of the union ‘cause it, for the most part it keeps you from getting abused, and it gets you a certain minimum payment, and I get my health insurance through Equity, though it’s harder and harder to keep up the number of weeks you have to work a year to qualify for it. Sometimes I feel like I need calculus to figure out how much coverage I have. And a pension somewhere down the line.
DB: 50.
Chip: 50, 50, that’s right. A point per week that you work in a union theater under a non-union contract, which is kind of a cool way to deal with it, I think, ‘cause the theaters get to know you and hopefully remain loyal to you when you turn union, although there are theaters around here that will not, who will be glad to take advantage of you when you’re talented and non-union, but when you’re talented and union and cost more, then you’re suddenly persona non grata, which is bad. Look, there’s a wolf coming by.
Actor in wolf costume: woof, woof woof!
Chip: And Mansür, our Maurice. I should go down, put on my costume. Nice talking to you!
Mansür: It’s my pleasure, old man! We’re having a marvelous time here.
DB: Well thank you very much!
Chip: Thank you.