"A complete failure" : What happened at 'Jagged Little Pill' should have massive repercussions
UPDATE: Producers of Jagged Little Pill released the following statement.
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After reading what Nora Schell posted on their Twitter account yesterday about their experiences working on Jagged Little Pill, I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t write. I couldn’t think straight. I needed to go for a walk to try to understand the feelings in my head. I was in total shock. As upset as I’ve been at the professional theatre industry, I’ve never been this upset.
Because through sheer stupidity, ignorance and a clear dereliction of duty, a cast member of a Broadway production could have died. And this could have all been avoided if the people responsible acted like human beings, showed compassion, and did their jobs the right way.
But they didn’t. And now, on the eve of the first Tony Awards since 2019, Broadway has a problem that will, should, could, have massive repercussions.
In case you’re not familiar with the situation, I’m going to direct you to a couple of things. The first is reading Nora’s statement on Twitter. Here it is.
The next is reading the response from Actors’ Equity. Here it is.
Let’s make a couple of things clear:
1. From everything that’s been presented, Nora Schell did exactly everything they were supposed to do. They disclosed their medical situation to the production stage manager, trusting that it would be communicated to the creative team, and was told repeatedly it would be. It never was.
2. After experiencing a medical emergency, Schell was coerced to continue through rehearsal, being told to “push through” with the PSM (who knew about the medical situation and apparently did nothing). It took Schell collapsing on a staircase and a fellow performer reminding forcing them to continue was against union rules, for Schell to leave and meet with doctors.
3. According to Schell, they were intimidated by production officials and members of the creative team to delay a very necessary medical procedure, which not getting in a timely manner could have killed them.
4. The production stage manager in question is Ira Mont, who is also a Vice President of Actors’ Equity.
There are multiple levels of awfulness surrounding what happened here. To begin with, Schell’s treatment by production officials and the creative team is abhorrent. That should never happen on any production, Broadway or high school. Schell was absolutely an important cast member but no role is so important that their presence is more important than a medical emergency. That’s common sense.
Add to that, Mont is a Vice President of Actors’ Equity. If anyone was going to do everything they could to make sure Schell was alright and that they got everything they needed, it should have been Mont. According to Schell, the opposite happened and it’s a frustrating mystery as to why. But the repercussions for that failure should be severe.
The same should be said for the “higher-ups” that were made aware too. Whether it was the producers or director Diane Paulus (Schell doesn’t say who in their posting), someone should have shown common sense and did what needed to be done so Schell could get the medical treatment they needed. I’m at a loss for words as to how that apparently didn’t happen.
I’ve gone over the Actors’ Equity rulebook and looked at some other documents relating to this situation and nothing I’ve seen so far allows an avenue for production officials to do what they did to Schell. Nothing. While production contracts can vary and rules might be different from one shoe to another, nothing I’ve seen so far says that Schell was in the wrong nor anything that would give permission for production officials to do what they did.
The other side of this that needs to be mentioned is that, once again, we see the mistreatment of black theatre employees by white people in positions of power on a professional production. We’ve seen this time and time again. It happened on Anastasia. It happened during Kinky Boots. It happened on countless regional productions. This is very much a problem that the industry has promised to change, but I’m not sure I believe them.
So where do we go from here?
What happened at Jagged Little Pill involving Nora Schell was a systemic failure at the highest level. Powers on the production pressured a performer into a dangerous situation and individuals charged to protect that performer, failed in their duties.
Whoever intimidated Schell, should resign from their role on the production immediately. Ira Mont should not only resign from the show but also as an AEA Vice President. If he doesn’t. he should be removed from both.
Mont’s apparent inaction is yet another blow to the credibility in a time that they can’t afford it. Given that one of their higher-ups is apparently responsible for this, their tweet response comes off more as callous and dumb than anything else.
There also should be investigations into both the show and Actors’ Equity by outside parties and the results of that investigation should be made public.
Finally, while none of us have the direct power to force the show to close, I certainly am not going to suggest anyone buy a ticket. While I certainly don’t support job loss or punishing the innocent, I also don’t believe those who have enacted such abuse on their employees should be allowed to continue profiting off of their labor.
What happened to Nora Schell during Jagged Little Pill was awful and should never have happened. There were things in place to make sure they were protected and for some reason, no one made sure those steps were taken.
Why? I have no idea.
But it cannot happen again. Ever.