Are you a professional actor or stage manager who wants to get more involved with Actors' Equity Association and learn how to have your voice heard by our union? This episode is just for you.

In this episode, I break down a 101 to Getting Involved with Actors’ Equity Association in various ways moving from a low-level of engagement to a higher level of engagement. If you’ve got ideas about making our industry better, safer, more sustainable, and more humane and want to help change our contracts but don’t quite know how, give this a listen! I guarantee this will help provide you with an approachable pathway forward into action.

For easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions on how to do any of these things via the AEA member portal, go to AliciaNewcom.com/AssemblyGuidePod, scroll down to the bottom and click “Ep12 Manual: 101 to Getting Involved with Actors’ Equity Association.”

All opinions are my own, and I do not in any way represent or speak on behalf of Actors’ Equity Association.

Check out @assemblyguide on Instagram and follow or subscribe for upcoming episodes. Have a topic in mind about creating more humane theatrical spaces you’d like to discuss or to hear me talk about? Reach out to me directly at assemblyguidepodcast@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you! Thanks for joining me on this journey towards change!

Music: Purple Planet Music

Logo artwork: Aidan Wharton @aidanwharton

The holiday season is huge in the theater industry. It’s a time when audiences are extra excited to see shows and when theaters make a lot of their profit, but that doesn’t mean that time has to be any less humane for the people working it.

During the holidays, theatre workers often work excessive, inhumane schedules without adequate rest, often during cold and flu season when theaters are already significantly understaffed. We are also expected to be away from family and friends at a time the rest of the world is celebrating being together, and while theaters make significantly more profit thanks to additional labor during this time, theatre workers aren’t compensated appropriately for the extra highly-strenuous work that we’re doing.

Holidays in the theater industry could be way more humane. We should be taken extra care of by our companies in a time that’s physically and emotionally an extra strain on us, while being exceptionally profitable for them. Remember: your humanity is non-negotiable. Even during the holidays.

Check out @assemblyguide on Instagram, and follow or subscribe for upcoming episodes. Have a topic in mind about creating more humane theatrical spaces you’d like to discuss or to hear me talk about? Reach out to me directly at assemblyguidepodcast@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for joining me on this journey towards change!

Music: Purple Planet Music

Logo artwork: Aidan Wharton @aidanwharton

Dignity and entitlement get confused way too often - especially when we look at workers and other exploited groups of people asking for their humanity to be respected in their workplaces. In this episode I talk about how we have falsely learned that dignity and entitlement are the same (spoiler alert: they’re not), why management loves when we confuse the two, and how all of this takes up energy that should be directed at those in power creating the inhumane working conditions in the first place and expecting those conditions to change.

Check out @assemblyguide on Instagram, and follow or subscribe for upcoming episodes. Have a topic in mind about creating more humane theatrical spaces you’d like to discuss or to hear me talk about? Reach out to me directly at assemblyguidepodcast@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for joining me on this journey towards change!

Music: Purple Planet Music

Logo artwork: Aidan Wharton @aidanwharton

Many people don’t think of theatrical workers when they think of manual labor, but our jobs - as actors, stage managers, and everyone working backstage and onstage to put on a show eight times a week - are extremely physical and exceptionally repetitive, and cause inevitable wear and tear, strain, and injury. But this work breaks down our bodies and voices more than it should when our employers do not resource us and our tools (our very human bodies) appropriately.

In this episode, I dig into the obligation of the employer to provide safe, sustainable working conditions and the ways management is not currently resourcing theatrical workers appropriately to maintain and care for our tools (our bodies) to do our jobs sustainably. I also sift through the thoughts we have to unlearn as theatrical workers that allow management to continue getting away with perpetuating unsafe, unsustainable working conditions.

Care can look different than it currently does. We deserve to be recognized and appreciated for our humanity, not handled as if it’s an inconvenience. We deserve to be resourced appropriately. You are not a machine; you are a human with one singular body. Your body is not company property.

Check out @assemblyguide on Instagram, follow or subscribe for upcoming episodes, and reach out to me directly at assemblyguidepodcast@gmail.com. Thanks for joining me on this journey towards change!

Music: Purple Planet Music

Logo artwork: Aidan Wharton @aidanwharton

In Assembly Guide’s first ever interview episode, I talk to the very inspiring Maria Briggs and Joanna Carpenter about all things swings! Swings are among the most under-resourced and overworked individuals in our industry. Having fought on behalf of swings at the negotiation table across from The Broadway League for the 2025 AEA Production Contract negotiations, Maria, Joanna, and I talk all about what that fight was like, the fights we have to continue fighting, and how we keep momentum moving forward.

We talk all about the role of a swing (and the various types of swings), some of the ways swings are under-resourced and why that needs to change, and how we as an industry can help ensure we value and respect swings and resource them appropriately for the work that they do! All that with a lot of laughter along the way. So tune in, and let’s all show up for all the wonderful swings who help keep our shows running!

Thank you to these two amazing women for sitting down to talk with me about their experience as swings and for being such incredible advocates for swings. You can connect with Maria at @mariarbriggs and Joanna at @thejoannac. And don’t forget to check out SwingNation at @_swingnation_ and show them some love and support!

Check out @assemblyguide on Instagram, follow or subscribe for upcoming episodes, and reach out to me directly at assemblyguidepodcast@gmail.com. Thanks for joining me on this journey towards change!

Music: Purple Planet Music

Logo artwork: Aidan Wharton @aidanwharton

Check out Assembly Guide on YouTube for this episode with podcast transcription.

I'm back with a brief episode after a long four month break away from the podcast. Join me as I share why I stepped away, what I learned, and how I plan on moving forward with more sustainable systems in place to continue this work! And listen through to the end for a little spoiler alert about next week's episode. It's my first guest interview, and it's a topic I'm extremely excited about that you're not going to want to miss!

Check out @assemblyguide on Instagram, follow or subscribe for upcoming episodes, and reach out to me directly at assemblyguidepodcast@gmail.com. Thanks for joining me on this journey towards change!

Music: Purple Planet Music

Logo artwork: Aidan Wharton @aidanwharton

Excessive scheduling is a huge problem in the theatrical industry. The demands of our jobs as live theatrical performers and stage managers can result in 60+ hour work-weeks before any type of overtime pay even without scheduling overload. But when the scheduling flexibility allowed within our union contracts is manipulated by employers in attempt to make as much money as possible, profit is prioritized above employee safety. Excessive scheduling creates unsafe workspaces by increasing overuse and fatigue, which lead to injury and illness.

In this episode I break down exactly how and why my work hours total 60+ hours per week as a Broadway performer, what a "normal" work week looks like, and when and how employers contractually can adjust our schedules to add shows without additional compensation for actors and stage managers. I speak about how this always leads to illness, injury, and additional cost to employers, and why investing in actors' and stage managers' wellbeing and safety will create safer workspaces and better shows. I also share what I believe we - actors, stage managers, or people who love and support actors and stage managers - can do to advocate for safer, more sustainable schedules and the safety and wellbeing of actors and stage managers. All of which will result in better, more successful and sustainable shows!

Check out @assemblyguide on Instagram, follow or subscribe for upcoming episodes, and reach out to me directly at assemblyguidepodcast@gmail.com. Thanks for joining me on this journey towards change!

Music: Purple Planet Music

Logo artwork: Aidan Wharton @aidanwharton

Check out Assembly Guide on YouTube for this episode with podcast transcription.

If we want to make change, to achieve any goal, or to simply show up with vulnerability and courage, we are inevitably going to experience failure. Failure is a necessary and unavoidable part of the process of change. In this episode, I talk about how and why we should reframe our outlook on experiencing failure and acknowledge its necessity in the path towards change!

Check out @assemblyguide on Instagram, follow or subscribe for upcoming episodes, and reach out to me directly at assemblyguidepodcast@gmail.com. Thanks for joining me on this journey towards change!

Music: Purple Planet Music

Logo artwork: Aidan Wharton @aidanwharton

Check out Assembly Guide on YouTube for this episode with podcast transcription.