Covid-19 Sick Days

I received some bad news from the show biz front last night. My buddy Matthew and nineteen others were laid off from Mystic Scenic Studios in Norwood, Massachusetts. The reason was that there had been too many cancellations of gigs. No telling how long it might last.

This reminded me of a semi-similar situation back in the fall of 2001. F/X Scenery And Display experienced a steep drop in business after 9/11, but Mack, the owner, kept everybody on for the months affected by that situation. Now, to be fair to Jim Ray of Mystic, F/X had around twenty employees to keep while F/X has over a hundred. And, frankly, I was flabbergasted that we were all paid to come in and do nothing for many weeks. On the other hand, I was disgusted when a couple of our gung-ho Union guys were whining that we didn't get Christmas bonuses or raises at the end of the year. Humans will be humans.

I was among the laid off from Mystic after the crash of 2008, which, as we all know, was caused by Obama several months before he was elected. I was on unemployment for several months, worked for Harvard's American Repertory Theatre for one week, then for Jim Ray's former partner John for three months in Somerville, MA. After all of that, I was called back to Mystic in June of 2009 for the two weeks before we began packing up for our move to Albuquerque. In Albuquerque, I applied for hundreds of jobs, heard back from maybe seven or eight, had interviews with three, and was hired by none. What I did was get involved with scenic construction on a volunteer basis at Albuquerque Little Theatre. The Production Manager managed to squeeze a few hundred bucks out of his budget to pay me for my hundreds of hours of work. That was my last paid gig in the Biz.

So I understand Matthew's situation pretty well. He has applied for a couple of jobs already, but whereas I was 56 when I was laid off, he is 66 now. Good luck out there, buddy. And don't contract any viruses.