Enea Tomei: Actor, Writer, Director, and Rider to Survive

Enea Tomei, an Italian actor, director, playwright, photographer, graphic designer, and artistic consultant, describes his struggle to survive financially while working in the performing arts. Despite managing a municipal theater in Bucine, Arezzo, Tuscany, and running a cultural association that integrates disabled people, he is forced to work as a night watchman and delivery rider to make ends meet. He criticizes the Italian labor system for artists, comparing it to slavery and exploitation, and calls for a minimum wage or state support similar to France's intermittent du spectacle system. Tomei reflects on the psychological toll of juggling multiple jobs unrelated to his artistic vocation, questioning whether theater has become a mere hobby. The article, published on Artribune in February 2021, highlights the precarity of cultural workers exacerbated by the COVID-19 lockdowns.