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Protest greets Blue Man's debut

Guilds upset with decision not to use unionized actors in performance

By JEN GERSON
Monday, June 20, 2005 Updated at 4:25 AM EDT
From Monday's Globe and Mail

Toronto — Months of debate and a labour board challenge all came down to an unusual theatrical opening in Toronto yesterday.

On one side of the street, 300 protesters denounced the "disrespectful" antics of the Blue Man Group.

On the other side, 300 invite-only theatregoers, critics and art-scene higher-ups lined the side of the newly renovated Panasonic Theatre, waiting to see the performance.

Then federal NDP Leader Jack Layton and his wife, city Councillor Olivia Chow, stepped up to a makeshift stage. Both were wearing Boycott Blue Man buttons.

Toronto has a great theatre scene because the work of unions has ensured that making a living here is viable, he said.

Other politicians echoed his sentiments. Toronto Councillor Paula Fletcher called Blue Man the "Wal-Mart of the theatre world," while Marilyn Churley, MPP for Toronto Danforth, told the group not to "import George Bush anti-union policies to Toronto."

Then, union leaders brought out a half-dozen "union made" cream cheesecakes. "Have a taste of this," one said.

Susan Wallace, a spokeswoman for the Boycott Blue Man Coalition and executive director of the Canadian Actors' Equity, called yesterday's protest an unprecedented show of anger among theatre professionals.

The rally was challenged in front of the Ontario Labour Board on Friday, with the Blue Man Group requesting an injunction against the unions' planned protest outside the theatre. A mediated settlement was reached between the coalition and Blue Man, allowing the protest to go ahead.

"This is the first time that someone came in and stomped all over our town," Ms. Wallace said, adding that theatre unions across the city feel almost universally disrespected by the group.

Boycott Blue Man buttons and balloons and water bottles were ubiquitous among the dense and vocal crowd clustered on St. Mary Street in downtown Toronto. Local artist Henry Martinuk cycled through the crowd on a bike festooned with a papier-mâché bull's head because, "Blue Man is buffalo bull chips."

Gabriel Radford, who plays the French horn for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Toronto Musicians Association, handed out bright yellow leaflets to passersby.

He complained that the Blue Man Group was ideologically anti-union.

It was a sentiment echoed by Kevin Mahoney, an executive officer with Local 58 of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, who said that local members of Toronto unions weren't getting a fair shake at positions within the production. The Blue Man Group promised to close down before signing any agreements with local unions, he said.

"There's a lack of respect these people have for the communities they've come in to," Mr. Mahoney said. "It's reeking of U.S.A.-based corporatizing phenomena that will march through countries like Canada like a military juggernaut and devour everything that lies before it."

He said the Blue Man Group's Canadian debut is the first time that local unions have ever been so disturbed by a theatrical production.

But among the theatregoers, support for the unions was much less visible.

Martin Bragg, Blue Man ticket-holder and artistic director of the Canadian Stage Company, said the show will be great for the city.

"It is so aggravating that a group of people feel that in order to be a professional artist you have to be a part of a union," he said. "It's 2005; we're not sitting in a coal mine."

© 2005 The Globe and Mail

The original article is located HERE