My father is a manager at a theater on Broadway. He usually goes to work Tuesday through Sunday and only gets off on Mondays. Of course, this is assuming that his theater has a show. You see, working on Broadway is not guaranteed work. Actors might complain about downtime in their schedules, but other people are affected when Broadway is dark, from the managers on down to the stagehands and ushers.

This strike comes as a pretty bad time for us. Before the strike my dad had work for only a month. Prior to that, his theater was dark for just over 8 months. Broadway has gone through its own little mini-recession and there was simply no work to be had. 8 months of being unemployed can play hell with your life - you go through your unemployment pay pretty quickly - and it has almost destroyed our family.

While dad remains on strike, mom works upwards of 60 hours per week, and my sister works just over 40.

Now, mom is a registered nurse, and has a pretty decent hourly rate, and my sister can fend for herself, but the sheer hell this strike can cause is staggering. Since my mother and sister are working so much, they’ve become much more impatient and stressed out - with each paycheck they fight to pay the rent, electricity, and other utility bills. We’ve also got the lease on the family car to worry about, as well as several credit cards, insurance policies, and loans that must be payed. To top that off we need to buy gas and eat every once in a while.

In order to balance all of this out, my family decided to sacrifice a few amenities that we’ve taken for granted for years: we’ve had to cancel our cable television account, which means we’re back to over the air TV, and there is no longer an Internet connection in the house (I’m currently borrowing my neighbors connection, which he agreed to let me use).

This lack of work also plays hell with other things - things that may seem minor, but just simply cannot be paid for with this tight budget; for example, there is a rather large, brown stain on the ceiling in the living room. Yes, we know it’s a leaking pipe, but we simply don’t have the cash to open the ceiling up, fix the leak, and replace the ceiling. Hell, we pay close attention to the lights and the heat just so we don’t get an unexpected surprise in next months invoice.

That car I spoke about earlier? The “check engine” light is on. One of the toilets stopped working, And, the family computer stopped working. I’ve since fixed the computer, but there isn’t much I can do about the car or the toilet.

Oh, and cell phone service? Forget it. For a family of four that loves to keep in touch with everyone, a family cell phone plan costs a lot more money than people would like to mention.

Are these minor problems? Absolutely. Could they be fixed under normal circumstances? Sure can. Are they piling up and costing more to fix than we have in our collective budget? Damn straight.

Why am I writing about this? I don’t know. It’s none of your damn business, but I think I just need to vent. Since I live in Seattle I’m disconnected from these particular events, but I’m not unaffected from the stress - I try to help them out financially whenever I can afford it, and I’ve spent a lot of effort and energy in coming home for the Thanksgiving holiday (and I’m attempting to make it home for Christmas).

How does the Broadway strike affect real people? It kills us, slowly, with stress.