Backstage: Actors' Equity Association has named longtime employee Christine Provost its new Central Regional director/assistant executive director. She will assume the post Jan. 1, 2012, replacing Kathryn V. Lamkey, who is retiring.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Equity Appoints New Assistant Executive Director
Backstage: Actors' Equity Association has named longtime employee Christine Provost its new Central Regional director/assistant executive director. She will assume the post Jan. 1, 2012, replacing Kathryn V. Lamkey, who is retiring.
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3 comments:
The interesting thing about this news is that she comes from a business background rather than a theatre background. This is something I hear often discussed on who would make good board members for regional theaters and stuff, whether they should have a theatre background or whether it isn't necessary. I tend to go back and forth on the topic. I think that her being a business representative gives her a really good place to be able to negotiate and pursue the needs of the union in a way that will be effective, but I also feel that she will need input on what those needs are that a different person in that role may not need. Now this may not be that big of a deal considering I'm sure union members will tell her any time they have a problem, it is an interesting thing to consider when looking for someone in a business/theatre job like that.
I agree with Calvin's points here, when choosing board members and leadership for Unions and theatrical organizations it is interesting to track their profession and how that relates or doesn't relate to the organization. While boards are often composed of business and local officials since they can pull in the money, Union leadership you would expect to come directly from their rank-and-file. HOWEVER, given AEA's massive organizational problems I think pulling in somebody who can offer an outside perspective is a wise choice. Hopefully she can help the various committees better organize themselves so that their public documents (contracts) and negotiations can gain more support for actors and stage managers.
Like Brian said, seeing how different organizations take advantage of the knowledge of their board members. A popular discussion is who should be in charge of an arts organization, the business head or the artistic head. It is important to realize that arts organizations are businesses just like Wal-Mart, Staples, and many other ones. Managing them is no different that managing Staples is different than managing a zoo. It is nice to see organizations taking advantage of the resources around them to put things in a different perspective and to gain a competitive edge on other organizations.
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