Artist Compensation Grant https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/proposals-2019/cost-of-living-increase-and-artist-compensation-grant https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/@@site-logo/sitelogo-75x75.png

Artist Compensation Grant

Additional Information
Used for	The Ruskin Group Theatre will use any grant funds to help support the rapidly increasing costs of compensation for actors, directors, designers and musicians.
Benefits	The Company's mission is to expose the community to the enlightening experience that theater can be while providing outreach programs to people in need through our "Healing through the Arts" program. As a theatre company, we routinely produce new works that often move on to be seen around the world. We engage a wide variety of artists, some of whom are young and just starting out, learning how to best use their gifts to support a career, but as well to enrich their community and the world. We conduct a visitation program with the UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital, whereby our artists will visit with and perform for gravely ill children, and recently, we have added elder visits to our outreach, proudly becoming a part of the "Last Wish" program.
Proposal Description	Ruskin Group Theatre productions have a broad reach, and our artists are both U.S. and internationally born. Our core audience is drawn from the City of Santa Monica and the broader West Side of Los Angeles. Yet, because our programming and our artistic community has an international appeal, we have at times drawn an audience from far outside of the city and/or county. We produce vital new and classic plays, offering our audience the opportunity to experience the transformative power of live theatre in a very intimate, 55 seat, setting. Our recent productions have included Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", starring Rob Morrow as Willy Loman, the world premiere of Ian MacRae's "The Joy Wheel", directed by Jason Alexander, and our new play, another world premeire, by Steve Mazur (Liar, Liar; Little Rascals), "Bad Habits". As well, we provide an artistic home to many local actors, playwrights, designers and directors. In all, we have employed over forty artists in the past year, the vast majority of whom are not a Rob Morrow or Jason Alexander, and struggle in the very expensive climate of Los Angeles. Any grant funding awarded from the the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation will go to support these artists through helping us to meet the increasing costs of their compensation. They look to the Ruskin Group Theatre to provide them a space to grow and hone their skills, as well as to commune with others in their field. Because they do so, and because we strive to keep our ticket prices reasonable ($20-35), our audiences benefit. Recently, however; several factors have made producing theatre in Southern California exponentially more difficult. First, the Actors Equity Association (the union that governs theatre actors), renegotiated their agreement with small theatres, effectively doubling the costs of artist compensation. As well, the movement in California, specifically Los Angeles County, to enact higher minimum wages, reaching $15/hour by 2021, greatly increased artist compensation costs. And finally, a recent ruling in California that bans private contracting, effectively making every hire a payroll employee, has additionally increased our artist retention expenses. In all, our operational budget has increased by more than 50% in the past two years. Though we will continue to strive to meet each challenge and to produce high-quality, world-class theatre for our audiences, it is ever more neccessary that foundations such as the Dudley T. Dougherty exist to support us in our endeavors. In an ever coarsening culture, we are committed to exploring the depths of the human condition and to affirming the dignity of it through our work. The artists who work with us, and our audiences who get to experience the fruits of their work, are greatly enriched by these efforts.