Exeunt Magazine: There’s been quite a few articles recently about the dearth of working class artists in theatre (mainly written by middle class writers, for publications with a large middle class readership). And while plenty of interesting points have been raised, the overarching theme seems to be how difficult it is to carve out a career if you don’t have the brass. This is, if you’ll excuse the pun, bang on the money (I have to work full time alongside my playwriting). That said, I think that by focusing solely on cash, we’re actually losing sight of the other barriers working class artists face.
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I found this article to be incredibly interesting; the author discusses the underrepresentation of the working class both onstage and offstage. The author argues that this underrepresentation is mostly due to how diversity in shows today is mostly included only in visible ways; casting directors cast people who will obviously represent a diverse community, while the creative team is not particularly, if at all, diverse. What the author seems to be advocating is the inclusion of work in the industry that is honest and an accurate depiction of certain experiences; this can only be accomplished if the people who are writing are the people who also experienced. Theater can only really be successful if it is believable; unbelievable theater pulls audience members out of the story and I agree with the article that there should be more of an effort to include working class theater artists in the industry. Once more diversity in class enters the theater industry, an entirely new array of theater will be produced with authentic and valuable content.
This brings to mind an issue that is relevant within the industry: the division between artistic and technical staff. In many of the theaters I’ve worked in, the artistic staff and performers are middle class, and the technical staff is working class. It contributes to the social tension often felt by technicians, who are seen as serving the “real artists.” A costume designer once told a technical director that she based a costume (of a sloppy, dirty plumber) on him, with no recognition that it might be a tad upsetting. I personally cannot count the number of times I’ve been asked if I ever wanted to be an actor, implying that what I do is inferior--what someone does if they can’t act. And much of the time, technicians get paid a small fraction of what artistic staff gets paid, literally putting us in a lower tax bracket. The phenomenon is definitely felt at some point, if not constantly, by every technician working in the field, but it does not seem to filter through. I’m not trying to say that everyone everywhere is like this, simply that class tensions are pervasive throughout the industry, and I don’t see it changing anytime soon.
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