It is definitely labor. And the only unpaid work I’ve done in 20 years is for showreel, I definitely don’t do unpaid theatre and haven’t since I graduated drama school.
Learning lines (which is unpaid work before rehearsals even begin), blocking (and depending on role: combat, intimacy as is being discussed, music/song, choreography, props and costume tracks) are all pretty hard work. Not to mention 5 weeks of 10 hour days 6 days a week as a standard rehearsal process (all of which is usually done standing and moving, so generally harder physical work, longer hours and fewer days off than an office job).
To say nothing of “hell week” (tech and dress).
For us semi-pros, I’m often doing my day job around roles as well.
what the fuck are you talking about? How on earth is something like playing Pozzo in Waiting for Godot, or James Sr in Long Days Journey “emotional prostitution”?
Floating toilet heads flirt as a method of stealing your food, which only happens in Ohio as thats where a lot of cryptids are supposed to come from, and also have voluptuous posteriors, an ultra-capitalist competitive outlook, and I am so confident this is the truth I will mock your relative performance to mine as inadequate and, finally, a dog joins in as a non sequitur because humans are doing it and using synecdoche I am implying you are also just a sheep.
You can call me Baby Gronk Rizz King, Livvy Just Rizzed Him Up
“rolling laughter” is a technique you have to learn as a live performer for a reason. TV shows at the time had to bridge the gap as the 80s/90s invention of stand up as an art form set the tone for how comedy should be.
It’s not that it was always bad, it’s just that culture changed. Same as how a Jacobite audient would find it real weird we watch theatre inside(!), sitting down(!!) and not talking during the show(!!!).