20 • Aug 2 - 4, 2020 NATIONAL • BROADWAY Continued from page 18 $600-a-week pandemic unemployment compensation program expires this month. Unemployment checks in New York top out at $504 a week but most people get a fraction of that, not enough to get by in an expensive city. The relief group The Actors Fund has distributed more than $14 million in assistance to some 12,000 people, but more is needed. “I can’t say this any clearer: The arts and the entertainment sector as a whole is on the verge of the biggest existential crisis we’ve ever had,” said Adam Krauthamer, the president of Local 802, which represents musicians. “We’re on the edge of the cliff.” He said many of his 7,000 members are taking a hard look at their careers and may not return to Broadway orchestra pits or symphony spaces. Krauthamer warns the sound of New York may soon be very different without help. “If the right politicians and philanthropists and people who help the arts are not engaged to put together a program that will save culture and the arts in New York City, it’s going to change as we know it forever.” Ali Solomon’s career was finally soaring when the pandemic hit in mid-March. Like many Broadway artists, she had a patchwork of jobs: She was an associate choreographer for the off-Broadway show “Trevor: The Musical,” the tour choreographer for “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and was helping a show in development. All were stopped — but rent wasn’t. “You’re at the top of your game after working for so many years and now to go find a job in another industry, where do you start? You’re at the bottom of the totem pole. You’re lucky if you’ll make minimum wage,” she said. To make ends meet, she is a skincare consultant for Rodan and Fields and teaches — both in-person at a studio on Long Island and virtually bransonglobe.com for PassDoor, an online dance studio created by Broadway veterans. “I’m starting to add little bits of income. None of it will compare to what I was making before. But it’s something and luckily I’ve been able to save. But the fear, though, is that nest egg that you’ve been saving is quickly going to diminish because the cost of living is so high.” Living with easy access to the theater district has always been key to Broadway’s talent pool. But those apartments often command the highest rent. So some workers are letting their leases lapse, moving out and biding their time to when the shows restart, raising fears of a talent drain. “I already know tons of people who’ve left the city,” said Solomon. “It doesn’t mean that they’re never coming back, but they’ve given up their homes. And they’re like, ‘Until we have a reason to come back, there’s no need to be here.’” Still, Micallef has faith. “I have the benefit of knowing two very important things that I think most people may not believe or may not truly understand — No. 1: This will end. It will. I promise it will,” she said. “And second, there is good on the other side.”
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