Angel Theatre Company’s Artistic Director John Patterson is offering actors, directors and writers a free career advice session whose aim is to help them adjust to the new landscape post-Covid and navigate it successfully. The event takes place in-person on Sunday April 10th at 7.00pm, lasting for approximately 2 hours with a Q&A at the end of the main session. Hosted by Bread and Roses Theatre in London, SW4 6DZ
Spaces are limited so you’re encouraged to book early to take advantage of this offer.
Book by emailing theangeltheatreco@gmail.com with the subject line YOUR NAME- CAREER SESSION
As mask mandates return to attempt to head off a Winter wave of new Covid variant Omicron, the theatre industry once again braces itself for cancellations and no-shows.
Brave producers getting shows out to the public are experiencing considerable resistance as the new variant causes a change in people’s behaviour, especially as regards being in a large hall with many hundreds of others at close range and feeling as though they have little control of their situation.
We really must all salute the courage and optimism of producers, working against a headwind of ever-morphing risk, to bring employment to creatives and entertainment to audiences.
Theatres who produce their own pantomime make a huge investment in order to financially front-load their year ahead, and the news that pantomime bookings are significantly down across the board will cause difficulty for all those brave venues trying to service their local communities and their creative community too.
But things can change very rapidly these days, and it is still hard to see how this new variant will act – and in what ways it will be different from the last prevalent variant. The incompetent UK government’s about-face in asking us to all wear masks again is too littl, too late yet again – it’s doomed to failure, thanks in most part to their abject lack of responsibility or leadership by example over the last 18 months. They really are an utter waste of space.
The sudden requirement for theatre audiences to wear masks again has reportedly caused a wave of requests to theatres for refunds. How theatres deal with this will be yet another thorny issue for producers, theatre owners and their hard-working and under-praised box office staff who have to square the circle with the public.
The plain fact is that that the mask requirement is patently unenforceable, even by the nicest and most eagle-eyed front of house staff. It is simply not doable for a handful of staff to enforce mask-wearing of hundreds of people – and of those who actually bother to comply, a fair proportion will be using the masks as a chin guard after 10 minutes – that, I can guarantee you.
Current audiences will mostly be those who calculate their own risk and of those around them and feel it “worth the gamble”.
However, I sincerely feel for all those parents and grandparents who feel genuinely unsure about taking their little ones to experience the joy and fun of pantomime, feeling desperately uneasy within themselves but feeling an obligation to act in a certain way for others, causing them untold stress and perhaps even illness.
Personally, I won’t be back inside a theatre until the case numbers have dropped significantly. But I am looking forward to getting back to the theatre we all love.
Have a very happy Christmas, and please enjoy theatre if you feel able, but please wear your masks (properly) and by respecting others, I sincerely hope that others will respect you, so that we can all have the Best Available Christmas once more.
Taking place online on Friday and Saturday October 8th/9th from 8.30am to 18.30pm BST, Changing Perspectives on Live Performance: interrogating digital dimensions and new modes of engagement is an intriguing, free two-day conference hosted by Anglia Ruskin University.
The past year has brought changing circumstances to the performance scene. The impossibility of rehearsing and performing to live audiences has forced artists to investigate new alternatives. This has affected both the aesthetics of performance-making and the professional practices of performance-makers. Changes in formats have created new ways of reaching audiences which have more fully exploited an ever-increasing engagement with a wide variety of screen-based technology and digital platforms.
This has significantly transformed live performances which have adapted to new ways of working and resulted in resourceful and imaginative alternatives and variations. Identifying the features of these changes will highlight pioneering directions for the future of live performance. This involves developments in the relationship between dance, theatre and film, offering digital innovations within liveness that this symposium wishes to identify and analyse.
In welcoming presentations, provocations, workshops, and performances as part of the proposals for participating in this symposium, their aim is to identify and analyse the transformations and generate new conversations among artists and theoreticians.
Keynote speakers :
Anne Bogart (theatre director, SITI Company, USA)
Prof Maria Shevtsova (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK)
Dr Mark Nicholls (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Wim Vandekeybus (dance theatre director, Ultima Vez, BE)
Roundtable discussion includes:
Charlotte Vincent (choreographer/director, Vincent Dance Theatre, UK)
Workshop by:
Parliament of Practices
The symposium will cover but is not limited to the following themes:
integrating screen-based technology and practices into live performance
blurring the boundaries between the stage and the screen
preserving, enhancing, or degrading the actor’s performance via screen-based technology
delivering virtual performances – platforms and best practice
the role of recording live performances
theatrical adaptations of cinematography
choreographing the camera when recording live performances
streaming performance or recording performance
site-specific as the new theatre
evolving and enduring innovations
theatre developing its own cinematic language
expanding and diminishing theatrical markets
changing patterns in audience engagement and spectatorship
cognitive dimensions of engaging with emerging forms
impact on emerging artists and pathways into production
re-thinking notions of live performance
the digital hiatus altering the experience of live performance
the experience of the liveness in a digital context
digital dramaturgies within live performance
the gendered nature of the impact of digital and technological innovations
definitions of digital theatre
blended and hybrid modes in transmission of meaning
Register for the Conference and find more details here
The live theatre sector has consistently been given less support than other business areas to survive the ravages of Covid – and that neglect continues.
Just look at the evidence – the government leaps to help industries like the aviation industry, with EasyJet doled out a whopping £600million of taxpayers cash within a month of the start of the UK-wide shutdown in 2020. Two months later the TV and film industries get a comprehensive insurance-backed scheme to allow them to restart and claim for Covid-related shutdowns in their supply chains. But what about theatre and other live events? It has taken over one year later until the government announced something similar for the live entertainment sector.
As soon as it was announced, as a Lloyds-backed scheme valued at $750million operating for a year from September, it was clear to see that it was not going to be much help.
Why? Because the offered insurance is heavily front-loaded, meaning that most (if not all) producers will simply find it too expensive to even contemplate. And therefore of zero help.
Leading producers have criticised the scheme, describing it as too little, too late and not fit for purpose. If Sir Cameron Mackintosh considered it “prohibitvely expensive”, then you can immediately imagine what other producers might think of it.
Mackintosh added “(the) insurance on offer explicitly excludes some of the protection the theatre desperately needs, namely for cancellation of performances caused by illness or enforced isolation and the negative effect of the reintroduction of limited capacities, which would make most shows financially unviable”. Another leading producer, Sonia Friedman, described the insurance as adding £750,000 of cost onto a twelve-week run, which even the public can see is utterly unviable.
Rather than support the theatre and live events industries by talking to them about what they need and then fashioning support accordingly, the government has once again evidenced that they do not understand the sector, nor do they have the slightest interest in educating themselves to understand it. It’s just another piece of the government mess born of disinterest, idleness and incompetence.
You can read more about the scheme via the Guardian newspaper here
STATEMENT FROM SOLT AND UK THEATRE about the offered insurance scheme
Society of London Theatre, representing over 230 producers, and UK Theatre representing over 240 theatres, made this statement when this announcement was made in August:
“Today’s announcement of a government backed insurance scheme for the live performance and events sectors, which is accessible also to theatres and productions is a welcome demonstration of the need for insurance to protect against the severe impacts of the pandemic. These have led to costly cancellations of theatre productions, and a major inhibition to producers, venues, and external investors from making the commitments necessary to bring our world leading theatre sector back to normal levels of activity, with all the employment which that creates, right the way across the UK.
Theatre generates £1.4bn in revenue annually and we estimate that as a sector our total economic impact including to the hospitality, travel and the tourism markets, coupled with the vibrancy theatre brings to our city centres, is worth at least treble this number to the economy as a whole. We also provide critical international earnings as our high quality productions are exported around the world. The sector will not be able to flourish and return to pre pandemic levels without an effective insurance scheme in place, that provides cover for Covid-19 related risks.
Currently commercial insurers are unwilling to offer such crucial cover without government backing. We therefore welcome government intervention to help plug the gap left by this market failure – especially in relation to possible future national or regional lockdowns.
However today’s proposal addresses only some, and not all, of the major risks that theatre faces. Self- isolation regulations have been forcing the closures of shows at short notice. Social distancing audience number caps have been a constant burden to an industry which requires high audience occupancy levels to be economically viable. The threat of their possible reimposition represents a major risk, that we need to obtain insurance cover for – especially if larger, high cost productions are going to resume at normal levels. Theatre productions need long term sustainable cover for shows running daily over a considerable period of time. These risks and requirements are not addressed properly by the proposal. For any scheme to be effective it has to be comprehensive, and it also has to be affordable.
We recognise the considerable engagement that has been made by DCMS and HMT, over the past year, in working closely with the theatre sector on the issue of insurance. It is important that we continue those negotiations and discussions as we work through the specific detail of the proposal announced today, but also to find ways to mitigate cover to include more of the risks that the sector is facing due to the pandemic, and to making the costs involved significantly more viable.”
Well, I hadn’t expected for this to be a continuing series ,but things are changing quite quickly so I felt it was important to take a few moments to make a few observations.
Since the West End (and other shows) have reopened, albeit piecemeal, it has been a turbulent time. Some shows have realised that it will take longer to get back to pre-pandemic audiences, and have consequently postponed or cancelled national tours, adding further uncertainty to the ever-shifting schedules of regional theatres.
In the West End, shows at the Coliseum , the Dominion and Royal Court have had backstage or cast members register a positive COVID-test, which meant that their show had to close down for 10 days while everyone isolates. Let’s compare this to a footballer, who tests positive but the team can continue training and playing. Level playing field, I think not.
While 10 days closure seems very cautious indeed, what we must also remember are the knock-on effects of this. Hard-pressed Box Offices are beseiged with calls from customers wanting to reschedule their visits, not all of them happy or empathetic, with all the accompanying stress that brings (not all customers are lovely about changing their plans, believe you me!).
Further, you may not know but everyone who is forced to isolate receives no pay whatsoever. Can you imagine how precarious this all feels to a performer or backstage worker who was so elated at getting a job after 16 months, only to have the financial lifeline it provides pulled from under their feet. Requests have been made to adjust the quarantine requirements, but of course we see how slowly this government acts- if at all. This is a key impact of the Government not providing support in the form of an insurance-backed scheme to compensate producers for any losses due to Covid stoppages. Exactly the same sort of insurance coverage helped the Film and TV industry get back to work over a year ago. Why did the Government not help theatres too? You decide.
I am sure you can appreciate this makes no sense at all, but then why should we ask for sense from a government which clearly hasn’t a clue, with no concept of right or wrong, fair or discriminatory, compassionate or cruel. They just don’t care.
I have heard that performers in cancelled shows are receiving abusive or threatening messages via social media, which is utterly unacceptable. If any performers or crew member receives abuse, they should report it to the police immediately. It’s understandable that people are upset. A LOT of people are upset. But being upset at the wrong people is wrong – and no way to get anything sorted.
This COVID mess , if it is anyone’s fault, is the Government’s -from mistiming lockdowns and unlockings, to giving incorrect and confusing advice from start to finish which now leaves us back in the situation we were in at Christmas, with cases likely to soar to new heights, putting evermore pressure on our valued NHS.
Big shows like HAIRSPRAY at the Coliseum are taking on 12 extra performers to try to cover them for any future COVID- related restrictions, but very few shows (if any in this appallingly difficult time) could afford the budget to do that. And just imagine how that is cutting into the profit margin for what was already a tightly-forecast 12-week run.
Meanwhile, another change to contend with is that audiences are now sitting up close and personal to each other in venues packed to full capacity after the misleadingly-titled Freedom Day. My projection is that many will not feel ready for this after more than a year of separation – and that consequently, they will feel desperately uncomfortable, unsafe and unsure – they will reschedule where they can, others will simply not go and others wont buy tickets until they see the case numbers going down in a big way.
The Summer is usually one of theatres’ boom times, as tourists flock to our world-beating entertainment scene. The tourists aren’t here this year, so venues have to work even harder to get UK audiences in- and it’s not easy in a heatwave as we’ve had this last week, even in normal times. Theatres will be more than ever subject to last-minute booking which brings uncertainty as to their financial projections, and may certainly cause some producers to slash ticket prices in a panic to get any price for a seat. I hope this won’t happen, but rising case numbers and extreme weather make this more likely. I hope not, but,….
