Duluth Playhouse to pay actors

This season for the first time, actors in Duluth Playhouse productions will receive monetary compensation for their performances.

The $100 is more of a thank-you than a paycheck, Playhouse executive director Christine Seitz said.

"We are offering an honorarium to our actors this year to show our appreciation for what they do, and to show that we value their talent and gifts and dedication to bringing live art to our community," she said.

In the past, stage managers, directors, set and costume designers, painters, musicians, choreographers and professional actors have been compensated. Seitz said it is important to recognize the actors.

This isn't a new benefit for local theaters. Several groups, including Midi Change of Pace Theater in Duluth and the Shack Dinner Theater in Superior, pay their actors.

Though compensation might not be unique to this area, artistic director Greg Miller of the Rochester (Minn.) Civic Theatre said it only happens at the professional theaters in southeastern Minnesota: The Jon Hassler Theatre in Plainview, Minn., and the Commonweal Theatre in Lansboro, Minn. Not at the Civic Theatre.

Midi Dinner Theater has paid all its performers a percentage of the show's profits for the past

16 years, said Peggy White, who owns the dinner theater with her husband, Tim White. At a minimum, White said performers receive $100 a weekend for a four- to five-week show. But for a popular production, like "Ole and Lena's Wedding," performers received more than $1,700.

"One of the reasons we wanted to have a theater company is that there is an awful lot of talent in Duluth and no one was getting paid," White said. "We thought it would be a nice thing to do good theater and always pay actors and musicians. ... It seemed fair."

White said that, like the Playhouse, Change of Pace Theater actors are people who love theater and would perform whether or not they received money.

"I think they perform with us for the artistic quality and the fact that we do a lot of musicals," White said. "I think it is a nice bonus. They would light up a bit when we said: 'We will pay you.' It did sweeten the deal and put a different angle on it."

Renegade Comedy Theatre artistic director Katy Helbacka said they have been paying actors since February 2008, but payouts depend on sponsorship. At the minimum, an actor will receive $50 for a two-week run. But they have been able to pay as much as $25 per show.

"I think it's important," Helbacka said. "It's been the theme of all of the grants I'm writing this year. In order to keep young, talented people in these cities, you have to keep it more attractive for them to live here. Even though it isn't a huge payment, we want to reward people for working with us."

Seitz said she doesn't think the honorarium -- which is available to adult performers who are out of high school -- will draw more actors to auditions. But for local actor Jody Kujawa, who makes a living touring the local stages, it does make a difference. Kujawa is selective about "freebie" roles, only agreeing to it in the case of a great script. Last year's was "Don't Dress for Dinner" at the Playhouse.

The two or three months of rehearsals and performances cut into Kujawa's weekends, when he is a karaoke DJ. Receiving money, no matter how much, helps cover rides to the theater, the quick meals at Coney Island and the occasional script-mandated haircut.