South West Professional Theatre Standards
Consultation Survey (takes 5 - 10 mins)
We need your input - please fill out our Google survey CLICK HERE
We need your input - please fill out our Google survey CLICK HERE
This is a work in progress project, which we are spearheading, as a response to our lived experience, and that of other creatives in the rural South West. .
This is to inform a new voluntary set of standards, being championed by The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company. We have found, as have other long term regional companies and performers, that there is a pervasive stereotype that regional or "local" theatre is going to be low quality, "have a go for special needs", unprofessional, and unskilled. This results in lower ticket sales because of an assumption that regional/ local equates to "low quality" or "unskilled"; thus affecting creatives incomes, less funding opportunities, and leading to incidents like requests by large companies with larger budgets for regional creatives to work for less or nothing "you might get to see yourself on TV", and often treating regional creatives as inexperienced / incompetent.
We also sometimes see some organizations/ venues/ casting directors acting negatively towards others by devaluing them, eg "'Splaining" to women, people of different ethnicities/ disabilities/ regional people; advertising professional shows as " amateur ", trying to alter other peoples company/ act names/ logos / trademarks on marketing, demanding that acts sign over their copyrights/ trademarks to other companie, demanding regional creatives accept less money than their London-based counterparts, and much more, all of which are actions stemming from devaluing negative assumptions.
What we seek to do, is set up a voluntary set of standards which outlines the reality of high-quality professional theatre in the Southwest, in line with Equity's standards of creatives wellbeing, pay, inclusion, and physical/ psychological safety, and openly challenge the devaluing assumptions that are applied to regional creatives, as well as outdated incidents of sexism, ablism, and racism.
In this context, due to including theatre which is struggling for funding "professional theatre" is used to mean theatre and live entertainment in which creatives, are paid, whether it is profitshare out of necessity, or full Equity minimum or higher industry rates.
This is to inform a new voluntary set of standards, being championed by The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company. We have found, as have other long term regional companies and performers, that there is a pervasive stereotype that regional or "local" theatre is going to be low quality, "have a go for special needs", unprofessional, and unskilled. This results in lower ticket sales because of an assumption that regional/ local equates to "low quality" or "unskilled"; thus affecting creatives incomes, less funding opportunities, and leading to incidents like requests by large companies with larger budgets for regional creatives to work for less or nothing "you might get to see yourself on TV", and often treating regional creatives as inexperienced / incompetent.
We also sometimes see some organizations/ venues/ casting directors acting negatively towards others by devaluing them, eg "'Splaining" to women, people of different ethnicities/ disabilities/ regional people; advertising professional shows as " amateur ", trying to alter other peoples company/ act names/ logos / trademarks on marketing, demanding that acts sign over their copyrights/ trademarks to other companie, demanding regional creatives accept less money than their London-based counterparts, and much more, all of which are actions stemming from devaluing negative assumptions.
What we seek to do, is set up a voluntary set of standards which outlines the reality of high-quality professional theatre in the Southwest, in line with Equity's standards of creatives wellbeing, pay, inclusion, and physical/ psychological safety, and openly challenge the devaluing assumptions that are applied to regional creatives, as well as outdated incidents of sexism, ablism, and racism.
In this context, due to including theatre which is struggling for funding "professional theatre" is used to mean theatre and live entertainment in which creatives, are paid, whether it is profitshare out of necessity, or full Equity minimum or higher industry rates.
