Bezos<\/strong><\/a>, his partner Lauren S\u00e1nchez and other family members. <\/p>\nThe letter outlines the volunteers\u2019 displeasure at \u201cbeing put in a room with someone who is working to support the destabilisation of US democracy\u201d. <\/p>\n
Each of the evening\u2019s 77 audience members take part in the theatre experience one at a time and are in close quarters with the performers. Ahead of performances, the actors are read a notice of the evening\u2019s audience members so they can opt out if they know someone. <\/p>\n
Volunteers working the night Bezos and his entourage came said they were given so little time to consider whether they were willing to perform for the tech billionaire, they felt they had to. Performers and audience members are able to stop the production at any moment. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wholly support the making of bold and daring art, and I\u2019m really glad that \u2018YMBBT\u2019 has given so many passengers and volunteers a \u2018life-changing experience\u2019,\u201d the volunteer said. \u201cBut the organisers owe us some respect and a sense of safety, and they let us down here.\u201d <\/p>\n
Joshua Kushner, venture capitalist and brother of Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner, has also recently been in attendance, stirring displeasure within the company. <\/p>\n
The letter asks that performers are able to \u201craise concerns about potentially contentious individuals who may be coming to the show as a passenger\u201d. It also asks for clarity on one guest proposing a \u00a350,000 (\u20ac58,400) gift by a guest who wanted to tip each performer \u00a3100 (\u20ac117). <\/p>\n
In response to the controversy, Bond and Lloyd emailed the volunteer team of actors four days later. \u201cBum Bum Train is built on empathy. We\u2019ve seen how experiencing the show can affect meaningful change, even in the most unlikely passengers.\u201d They added they wanted to keep the \u201cexperience open to everyone \u2014 even when it features high-profile figures\u201d. <\/p>\n
Although Bond and Lloyd spent the first decade of the show\u2019s running making very little money, its increased success in the past decade has allowed them to take a wage, alongside 20 production staff. <\/p>\n
\u2018YMBBT\u2019s volunteer cast has been a source of controversy already with actors union Equity criticising a \u00a3150,000 (\u20ac175,000) Arts Council England fund in 2015 when the actors are not paid at all, let alone in line with their union\u2019s minimum requirements for West End shows. <\/p>\n
Producers have publicly responded: \u201c\u2018You Me Bum Bum Train\u2019 never discloses information about its passengers. The production receives no Arts Council or private funding. It is made possible through ticket sales alone, a portion of which are allocated as private nights and patron tickets in order to offset the cost of the public tickets \u2014 a fact You Me Bum Bum Train openly communicates to the public, press and any volunteers who choose to donate their time to making the show happen. Additionally, You Me Bum Bum Train remains transparent about how any passenger donations are used, as and when they are received.\u201d <\/p>\n
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Lloyd has said that if the actors were paid, each ticket would cost \u00a36,000 (\u20ac7,000) and that the volunteers find the experience rewarding. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ADVERTISEMENT Actors from the large volunteer cast of the UK viral sensation play \u2018You Me Bum Bum Train\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[2540,4080,77,12767,257,2764,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-22819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-billionaire","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-jeff-bezos","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-theatre","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114343694045934635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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