On March 12, 2020, the Opera told every backstage worker to leave the building, and no new performances have been conducted since then. ![]() “They do this every single day, 365 days a year, for 138 years,” Hartnett explained.įor the last year, Met stagehands have not performed this ritual. And the whole time, other backstage workers are building sets for the next production, taking them from ideas scribbled on a cocktail napkin to completed work. The Met does not do consecutive performances of the same opera, so the stagehands never get a day where they can just keep the set in place, with well over 200 performances per year to manage. That show goes on, and after it ends, a second-shift crew strikes that entire set and puts it away, and positions the set for rehearsals the next morning. When it’s over, stagehands strike the set and the lights, move them offstage, and assemble the different sets needed for that night’s performance. Performers come in to rehearse on Monday at 8 a.m., with a full set and lights. Here is a typical day for the 800 backstage workers at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, as described to me by Joe Hartnett of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which represents some of the unions at the facility: The Met is seeking a 30 percent pay cut, plus cuts to overtime, sick, and vacation pay, health insurance, and other benefits, from workers who have not received a paycheck in an entire year.
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