A common misconception….
This is especially common among people who are in love with the idea of “fame” and being on stage, but have never considered that acting on stage takes more than just learning a list of words and actions. 

“ All I have to do for a theatre show is to learn my lines and where I stand. “

Yes, that misconception has had me grumbled at more than once for insisting on a bit more than that.  I was physically attacked once for suggesting it. 
Certainly, without learning your lines and where you stand, you won’t be able to set foot on stage in a play, but what about bringing life to your character? What about creating a performance that the audience will enjoy with believable interesting characters? 

Here’s an imaginary dramatic scene: 

-Rose kneels on the stage, shaking with suppressed tears
-John enters, and pauses, watching her.
-John: "The same fate befell another thirty men. But Kenneth was the bravest of them all. Out of the four captains he was the only one to speak out. You should-"
- Rose: (interrupts) "how can you say that? You stood by as the Emperor had him shot in the city square with his men. You know-"
- John: (interrupts) "yes, and if I hadn’t, your son would have died too."


Now even with no more context, there’s a lot going on there. Just walking on the stage, standing in a designated area and saying the lines will lead to a flat scene with no emotion, nothing which encourages the audience to believe, or buy into, the reality of the situation that Rose and John are experiencing.

Both actors need to analyze what is happening with those lines. Rose is obviously mourning the execution of Kenneth, someone very important to her. She is distraught and also angry at John. 
John is trying to rationalize and explain his decision to not help Kenneth, in order to save someone else.

Learning to analyze a script is a critical tool for an actor. New to this? Here is a link to help: 
How to Analyze a Script 

Both characters are going to be feeling intense emotions. They are arguing, interrupting one another.
If either actor just stands(or kneels) in their spot saying the lines they have learned, parrot fashion, there will be no emotion. It will be flat, unconvincing, at best conveying a completely different meaning for the characters and at worst appearing ridiculous and false.

Only by analyzing the script and exploring how those characters feel, and developing ways to express that in tone, body language, physical and vocal dynamics, can the actors bring that to life on stage.
Only by practicing together numerous times, can the actors create the dynamic. Interrupting one another needs numerous rehearsals to time it correctly.  Reacting to the other characters emotions and expressions take time. As they work together, the interaction gets more and more nuanced, and the relationship better developed. 
Creating an emotional scene needs the actors to build a rapport and energy between them. That again only happens over time.

It is only in this way, for numerous rehearsals, that the "realism" of the characters can be created for a convincing performance. 

It is for this reason that we insist on a lot of rehearsals and excellent attendance. If one actor in a scene is not participating in this process or not turning up to rehearse, the dynamics of the whole scene are ruined - someone "reading in" is not able to create the same dynamic. 

So, on top of all the other challenges we face as a small regional theatre company, we now have to face Covid-19. 
This is going to be a death knell to many theatre and film production companies. With (quite nessecarily) theatres closed, and film productions shut down, and us all encouraged to at the minimum socially distance, and if ill (even with a cold) to self isolate. 

As with all other businesses and organisations, it is down to us to help set a good example and not only look after our cast, crew and audience members, but also on a wider scale, to not break the reccomended methods for keeping people safe. 

We have lost our main funding source - the market where we have our book stall is closed. 
Theatres are closed - so we have no shows in rearly spring therefore no Spring earnings for cast & crew 
We cannot meet to make films for festivals - social distancing. 

This does not mean we are finished. FAR from it. We are adapting and developing new temporary ways of working. All work is now happening online. 

- We are rebooking our shows for a time that hopefully life will be starting to get back to normal. 
- We are rehearsing and meeting online using a video-conferencing system called Zoom. (many thanks to the people on Women+ In Theatre for reccomending). Until it is safe, there will be no meetings in person. 
- We are setting up online broadcasting, so that we can live-broadcast Zoom-based readings and other creative work on a "pay what you can" model. 
- We are finding ways that our people can offer their skills online, for a small fee just over UK minimum wage), helping them raise some money for the time being. 
- We are working on funding bids, networking, and preparing all sorts of things to build company publicity, funds (ultimately to find ways to fund full wages for all cast and crew as opposed to profitshare), developing further expertise by online and book study, and networking.   
- We are writing new scripts & training manuals, making new costumes, repairing equipment, and doing all those tasks that we didnt have time to complete before, that can all be done from home with no physical interaction. 
- We are keeping a safe locked online network for our cast and crew to chat and interact, with friends from our productions - helping keep all our mental health together at this incredibly stressful time.

Ultimately, however upsetting and stressful (and absolutely heartbreaking) it is, we will survive this. We will even have developed new things,and  when things are able to get back to normal, we will have used this time as well as possible. We will have the technology to reach many more audiences via online broadcast. We will have maintained interaction and operation.  We will have developed and grown many things. We will be ready to hit the ground running. 

For now, please stay at home if you possibly can, keep well and safe, look after those around you, follow social distancing advice, and do not, whatever you do, give up. This storm will pass. Decide that you WILL emerge victorious, just as we have decided. 

We are sometimes asked to take children, and under-18s into our shows, and we have noticed that there is often very little awareness as to what this entails. 

As people will know from our auditions page, there is a section on the basics of casting young people in shows, but this article is intended to explain a great deal more. 
What has to always be borne in mind is that this is a professional, touring theatre company. This means that shows are often toured to venues around the Southwest (and possibly further afield); and actors regardless of age need to be able to keep up to the performance quality, and be safe (and legal) coming to shows in unfamiliar spaces . We don't have the same facilities that amateur or small activity clubs may be able to offer. 

First of all, you need to be certain that the show script, the specific roles in consideration. and the way the show is being staged, is suitable for the age and wellbeing of the young person. 

Next, you need to consider the care of the young person. By law they must be chaperoned at all times, and there are specific rules about this: The very basics are that the chaperoning must be by a parent or a legally licenced and employed chaperone. The child must stay in the line of sight of the chaperone at all times, who in turn cannot be distracted by reading the phone or a book, and needs to be aware of the child's wellbeing.
The child must have use of their own changing space which must not be entered by adults other than the chaperone, while the child is changing.  The child must not enter the space(s) where adults are changing, while the adults are changing. 
The chaperone must ensure that the child has their legally required break times, and if necessary, study-time for schoolwork, and for arranging the child's travel to and from rehearsals/shows. 

If the young person passes the auditions, their involvement in a shows is still subject to the Child Performance Licence that needs to be granted to them by (in our case) Torbay Council. This could be withheld for a number of reasons either from the theatre production or simply that the child has been involved in too much in the past 12 months and there is concern that it may interfere with schooling or allowed work hours. The licence application needs to be filled out jointly by the production producers, and the parents, as well as including a letter of support from the child's school. 

The adults of the company need to be briefed, if they are not previously experienced, on working with child actors; this includes interaction on and off stage, making sure language backstage remains acceptable, and much more. 
The child and the chaperone, need to be aware of company policies, data protection, non-disclosure of intellectual property, health and safety regulations as with everyone else in the company. 

There are, to be realistic, reams of documentation on legislation and good practice, but this is a quick look at the basics, and hopefully an explanation of some of the things that we have to consider, for every young person who is considered for a show. 
It may seem like overkill, but theatre is a complex workspace in terms of production health and safety, and with the requirements for late night working, clothing changes, etc, a lot that has to be taken into account to keep the child's wellbeing paramount. 

For anyone who really cares about improving work in theatre and film, profit share is never the first or ideal choice. However, for grassroots organiations - like us - with little to no external funding or sponsorship, and no wealthy benefactors, it is the only honest way to reward the cast and crew of a show. We can proudly say that as a result of this good practice, we have never once ended a show in the red, and our actors have always earned money from the shows they are in with us.

Regardless of the budget of a production, you should never, ever, for any reason, promise anything that you cannot guarantee offering your cast and crew.


Sadly, as with anything, people jump on the bandwagon to use it as a fancy way of saying that they have no intention of paying the cast and crew, or add so many "dodgy costs" to the outgoings that they make it look as if no profit is made - which then badly hurts the companies who are genuinely paying whatever they can and supporting their cast and crew in whatever way they actually can.

We spent a lot of time working out the fairest possible way that we can do this. One day hopefully, we will reach our ideal - which would be to have the funding and income to be able to offer all cast and crew union rate payments. In the mean time we are constantly looking at best practice to benefit everyone involved with us. After all, we started to benefit local people wanting to get into self employed theatre work, in an area where there are few, if any, such opportunities, and in an area of high poverty. We would be extremely remiss not to benefit everyone!

So today, we decided to share what we have developed as our best practice for honesty, open-ness, and supporting everyone in our team. Obviously this is always looking at improvement but this is where we are at, at the moment.

The money.....

So, we looked at funding day to day running costs in a way that this does not come from the actors earnings from shows. That covers rehearsal space (we use a local community centre), and annual insurances.
We traditionally have had tables at carboot sales and fetes; and while this will continue, we will be soon opening a regular book stall at our local town market. This covers the costs of the rehearsal venue, and the insurances for the most part - as well as providing extra publicity for our shows, which of course sells more tickets to earn for the actors! Again, none of those costs are taken from the show ticket sales. We are also able to provide free tea, coffee, biscuits and milk for free rehearsal refreshments - on a week when income is low, one of the company directors will purchase these for the group.

Then of course there are show costs. With early planning, and always keeping an eye out, we have been able to source most of our costumes, props, and even technical equipment, by touring local second hand charity shops, and picking up things from Freecycle (or even the local dump!). We have some lights (fully tested, and working beautifully), and a sewing machine for repurposing fabric and costumes, that had been found dumped. It is amazing what you can find, and remake, with planning and effort.

Then it is down to getting the show on the road. We usually only book venues which can offer a box-office split, rather than an upfront hire cost. The usual split is 80% to the production company and 20% to the venue. We did learn in our early days to be very careful with contracts for the venues, to make sure they do not add hidden extra costs that you never agreed to. As a regional and female-led company, there are venues which will try to change things from under your feet.

We tend to be quite clear that we only accept actors and crew based in our regional area - this is because many of us live in less-than-ideal accomodation where we cannot put another person up, and we do require people to attend rehearsals and performances in person - after all theatre is a group effort.. With no possible budget to cover travel and hotels, we therefore are restricted to working with people based in our local area.

So, once shows are booked, we work ourselves crazy in publicising the shows - after all the more ticket sales we get results in the more that the actors and crew earn. Publicity on little or no budget is a whole other article, and takes a huge amount of work, but it can be done very effectively.

After the show, we get the ticket sales reports from the venues, and the payment for our (usually 80%) of ticket sales, from the venue to our company. This is usually quite detailed information, and we make this available to all cast and crew, in our productions locked cast/crew facebook group, as screenshots, so that everyone involved in the show can peruse and check the figures should they so wish. Once the show run (which may include several venues) is over, and all sales reports recieved, we refer back to these reports as made available to the cast and crew; and also provide the final breakdown of total earned by the show.

This (again in a group post provided to all cast and crew) is then broken down equally by the number of people involved in a show, so that each person will recieve an equal amount, down to the nearest penny. (Regardless of your role in the show, you recieve an equal share, because you are equally valuable to to the show - without you it couldnt happen!).

The payment then is made available and paid out within 7 working days, of our having it, to all cast and crew.

That is how we deal with the financial side. However, that is not the limit of what we provide.


You can provide more than money as well.

Regardless of a low or non-existant budget, you can provide extra things to your cast and crew, which is seriously valuable. It can vary a little by show but there are constants we developed our list by looking at portfolio development opportunities for your people, creature comforts, and tangible things! It also doesnt need to be the often nebulous and undefined "exposure", hated by all theatre and film professionals. It is far better to consider what actual things you can guarantee being able to offer. These do not need to be expensive things, or even cost you much time, but can be very valuable to the recipient none the less!

Our guaranteed "extra" things for cast and crew on any production include:
- Show photos (character photos, on set, or in a themed location)
- Individual character posters (featuring a character poster of the actor)
- Video clips of the show featuring the work of the actor or crew member.
- Copies of any publicity (think newspaper articles, etc) featuring the cast or crew members image or name.
- Social media shoutouts where possible for the cast and crew members.
- In-rehearsal / backstage refreshments (tea, coffee, biscuits, fruit squash)
- references for work or education (after show run has ended)

We do not ascribe a financial value to these things but instead provide them in addition to the financial profit-share.


Final
What is important in any profit-share production, is to offer everyone what you can guarantee: in our team, nobody, from the company owners, to the tea-lady, is treated differently from any other, or gets any more or less than the others. It is also critical to be open about everything. Not only does it allow people to see for themselves, that you are doing all you can for them, but in a world where all of us are jaded by malpractice, it builds confidence, which is also important - it adds to a positive atmosphere, and a positive atmosphere makes for a happier cast, who put on a better show, which builds the production following, and so on.

Our ultimate aim is to find the funding and support to be able to move to union rate payments for the people in our projects, and in fact active attempts are being made to find the support to take this next step, however, in the meantime, this is where we are. And doing our best with the circumstances we find ourselves in.

Over the past few weeks (more since we won the theatre award in New York!) we have been recieving enquiries for our actors for external stage and screen productions. These are always welcome, but are vetted quite strictly. Sadly many companies approach us, hoping for inexperienced actors who will not expect recompense, in return for "exposure". This is not the case and productions deemed to be wilfully avoiding recompensing actors, will be reported to Equity. 

As you will know by this point we are a professional production company and while we strongly support community work, and even voluntary work as well, there is a fine line of standards. We remain flexible to encourage work at all levels (we know all too well what it is to have no funds), but we do expect a minimum of standards in line with the resources of the production.  The core requirement is that by contacting us, you are asking to engage professional actors, and therefore you are expected to treat them as such. Projects which ask an actor to pay a fee to "join" or audition ("pay-to-play") will be rejected at all times.

Individual cast members may freely get involved in whatever they choose, outside of our company requirements, but as a company we cannot pass on any castings that do not meet these basic requirements.

There are sometimes "shades of grey" so if you are unsure about whether we will accept a casting, please get in touch and discuss. [email protected]

Large TV / film companies, commercials, training & corporate, national production companies:
In general terms we will only pass paid work offers to our actors. Effectively if your company is deemed to be one that is in a financial position to pay actors, then payment must be offered in line with Equity minimums, to be paid within 28 days. We will not accept unpaid extra / crowd work under any circumstances.

For local start-up productions, there must be a minimum of equal profit-share and portfolio material (clear character photos, and video of performance) offered.

Student productions should, at the minimum, offer full portfolio material, as well as travel expenses, and provide contact details for the college/ university, and the course tutor. Equity reccomend that students raise funds for projects and state that most colleges/ universities recieve funds to pay actors for being in student films. While this is still a grey area, the student should offer whatever they are able to guarantee.

Amatuer theatre/ local fetes/ community fundraisers will be considered, if deemed to be of benefit to our actors, but again must guarantee portfolio material (clear character photos and video) to be provided within 28 days of the event.

Talent shows will be advertised to our members with the following caveats. That there is no fee to enter, that it is with a known company, and has no reputation of exploitation or favouritism.

Overseas castings must be fully paid with expenses, and provide full pay & expenses rates, company details, work permits/ visas, and any other relevant documentation. Due to the number of fake castings "just apply to this whatsapp", or companies being impersonated,  we reserve the right to take a little longer to do some background verification.