Book Review: Theatre Work

In the months prior to its release, I'd been looking forward to this book, Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production by Bridin Clements Cotton and Natalie Robin. 

I first wrote a placeholder for this book review when the title came out back in the summer of 2024. I avidly devoured it within a month of its publication and filled my placeholder draft with notes for a subsequent review.

But life intervened before I sat down to turn my notes into a review and now enough time and seismic change has gone by that portions of the book may feel outdated, not because these issues no longer exist but because (at least in the US) arts funding cuts loom large, threatening many theatres’ very existence. 

Many of us are preoccupied now with all-consuming existential threats. After all, if the theater that employed you no longer exists, there’s not much point fighting for a more equitable contract.

It is nevertheless recommended reading, particularly for those with an interest in wage parity, workplace equity, and striving for a more humane production environment for theater practitioners—statistical and anecdotal data could be valuable in bolstering those causes. 

The book looks at all areas of theatrical production, but because (statistically speaking) costume professionals hold complex intersectional demographic identities, we are highly represented in cases cited.

Williamstown Theatre Festival is a major focus in terms of case-study specifics. The 2021 unsafe work conditions, employee and intern abuse scandals that made WTF a case study are now far enough past in the churn of the news cycle that those who  followed them at the time may have forgotten the particulars, and the details may be completely shocking and new to some readers. 

Although it could have been written in the. style of a screed or a tell-all, the book’s tone is that of a serious academic study (because it is). If you’re looking for scandal, it’s there in the deplorable treatment workers report experiencing from many different theatres, but you will need to parse and analyze the text to find it.

Highly recommended. You may find as I did that the research in the book corroborates something you already suspected about the field of theater production, but couldn’t quite articulate or prove.