How Much Can a Chicago Equity Theatre Actor Earn in 52 Weeks? Survey Says: $35,685

Chicagoans know this scene all too well: Your passion is acting, and to live it out, you sweat through some other job by day for the financial wherewithal to be able to act at night.

While this is a very common scenario, it’s just as common knowledge that theatre actors – like teachers – aren’t swimming in cash from their passion. Acting more often complements whatever the thing it is they do by day to pass time and pay the rent.

But at least teachers can make a living exclusively at their craft without having to hold down a second job or shack up with a sugar daddy or momma. Can Chicago actors?

To answer that question, I turn to the seventh edition of “The Book: An Actor’s Guide to Chicago”. Chicago actors know it as the bible.

Published by PerformInk Books on March 16, 2007 and edited by Carrie L. Kaufman (disclosure: Kaufman is my cousin), she writes an article below that sheds numerical light on this quandary.

While the answer is what you’d expect, it’s the first time I’ve seen it so clearly. Please note this information applies only to equity actors who have joined that double-edged sword of a union.

In [the summer of 2006], a bunch of people decided to calculate if a [Chicago] equity actor could actually make a living just on stage without having to tour outside the Chicagoland area.

Calculations were made based on the top Chicago-Area Theatre (CAT) contract – tier six – which pays $686.25 a week (not including overtime) to an actor.

[While] rehearsal times and runs of shows vary, let’s just say a lucky actor actually works all 52 weeks a year.

He earns a whopping salary of $35,685 without having to teach or wait tables or do voice or on-camera work. But how many actors work 52 weeks a year?

To be sure, it’s possible. Broadway and touring shows, which includes the Chicago sit-down production of “Wicked,” pay actors a minimum of $1,465 per week plus a $113 per diem for traveling.

Touring productions do often run 52 weeks a year and earn actors a pretty tidy sum.

An actor who works close to all year usually has agreements with theatres to pay him over equity minimum. An actor might do, say, four shows a year and take home about $30,000.

But when was the last time you were cast in four equity shows? And $30,000 is hardly enough to live on in Chicago.

“I don’t think you possibly can make a living [on stage],” said Mary Ann Thebus, who is one of the most prolific actors in Chicago.

[She added:] “Maybe if you work at the main stage at the Goodman all the time you can eke out some sort of living. But most people don’t do that.”

So, why go equity? That’s a tough question. Almost all theatre professionals in Chicago are in agreement that a young actor just starting out should not try to get into the union.

The aim is to get cast in as many shows as possible to get lots of experience and become a better actor.

We have 50 equity theatres listed in this book and 15 of those are only tier one (meaning the theatre only has to hire one equity actor). In contrast, we have 150 non-equity theatres listed.

Beyond waiting tables or being employed in other non-artistic roles, theatre actors also do commercials, industrial films, print ads and work as extras in films to make extra cash.

Actors should earn more. Teachers should earn more. Baseball players should earn less.