Thursday, March 01, 2012
Outrage as passport office says 'acting is not a proper job'
The Stage: Equity president Malcolm Sinclair has written to home secretary Theresa May to complain after a West End performer’s reference for a passport application was rejected because “acting was not a proper job”.
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3 comments:
this is truly ridiculous, for anyone especially an organization controlled by our own government blatantly stating that acting is not a proper job. but i do have to commend sheldon for handling the situation how he did. He has a valid point that this very well could have been either a miscommunication through employee training or possibly an employee's own personal bias but until told otherwise we can assume that this worker is representing the government's opinion. Bottomline this sucks because it is completely out of line for any organization to claim that someone who makes a living acting does not have whats really considered a job.
If acting is not a proper job, then I wonder what the definition of a proper job is. As I see it, actors earn a salary and pay their taxes, therefore it should count as a real job regardless of which definition of 'real job' is used. I do think that Sheldon's response to the situation was a fairly good one, wherein he did not immediately blame the government but instead chose to try to fin out the reason.
This bugs me because it just reinforces the perception of what people in the arts do is not really that important. It's an old world, and frustrating point of view. We all make our own contributions to the world, and just because some are not as direct as others does not they can be discounted. Many artforms inform the viewers of various events, issues, and problems around the world, whether they be on stage, on canvas, or on film, and that needs to be kept in mind.
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