What Does a Safe Return to Theater Mean?
Throughout the last 13 months we have seen and heard an outcry from the performance community for equality in representation on stage and a safer environment. An outcry supporting friends who have been wronged for years with mismanagement, verbal abuse, verbal assault, discrimination due to race, gender and/or color just to name a few. Unfortunately, these cries have only become echoes of a conversation that should have happened many many years ago but never did. What’s worse is that these echoes have fallen into a bucket of normalized topics within the industry along with performers’ mental and physical health, body image in theater, rooted devaluing of performers’ self-esteem, lack of investment on proper training (before, during and after performances), objectification of the performers, and undervaluing of performers.
COVID throws a new wrench to the mix with performers and representatives all around speaking up with demands and expectation on how safe the new theater environment should look like. These expectations are not unfounded and under any other circumstance they would carry enough weight and support on their own that the parties involved would synthesize an updated program built to fit the evolution of the industry and disciplines surrounding it. However, this is not (and mind you it has never been) the case in the theater industry.
If we take the current safety guidelines for performers and audience members set by the different government bodies on top of the expectations and demands beset by the theater community we can easily say that returning to theater is going to take more than simple planning from all fronts. It’s a fact that this pandemic has brought the theater and live performance industry to a complete halt for over 13 months and for a brief moment we witnessed a sigh of relief when the news for an estimated timeline of its return became public. Yet, despite thousands of performers were awaiting to hear these news for months, new concerns surfaced as to how the conditions will be prior to their return to the stage with unions, producers, theater owners and every one involved at the top of the industry’s food chain negotiating in behalf of the performers. This brings forth the notion that there is a more important conversation and an impending debate to be had on how the theater industry and the unions (as advocates for the artists) should handle all matters involving performers’ safety.
How will they meet the demands of the city and health regulations while maintaining the performers’ safety as one of the top priorities in their preparation for the estimated return in 3-6 months.
There is, a gap in communication between the performers — their expectations of the industry and unions who represent them, and their individual values as artists — and the corporate side of the industry — how their hierarchies operate, what they value as a business, and all the red tape behind the scenes. Most performers will say that they have an idea of how things operate on the corporate side, yet are unaware of the entire story not because they are not asking the questions, but because most times performers are only exposed to part of the picture. The industry has failed at being concise when relaying the information down through the different branches, which we cannot say is right or wrong for all we know is that they must have their reasons. Unfortunately, the lack of clarity between both parties causes a divide between the artists and the businessmen creating two conflicting ideas on what theater is and what it should be that continues to grow away from each other, instead of come closer.
Everyone in the industry has demands and everyone in the industry has expectations. Yet, expectations fail when they are founded on a ground where clarity never existed. When every character of the story is blinded by the tunnel vision of their personal demands. How can we expect anybody in the industry to see the whole picture when the curtain separating them feels more like a wall. Don’t get me wrong I agree COVID guidelines for a safe return is by all means a priority, however I believe that it is just another added topic of conversation on top of a much bigger and impending list of topics that have been collecting dust in the corner.
A Safe return doesn’t address COVID regulations and stops there, it begins at the top with:
The agencies, companies and schools - investing on a training and performance program that departs from the old reactionary model, which heavily relies on post-injury rehabilitation as a result of the normalization of the industry’s focus on developing craft and skill of performers while simultaneously neglecting the required mental demands and physical preparation necessary to meet their evolving physical demands. Instead, a safe return would have these organizations prepare their artists as athletes with a mindset around preemptive training as a way to reduce and prevent common injuries, incorporate adequate strength training and educating the performers on physical and mental training outside the stage and studio. On top of ensuring that every one in the industry be held accountable to the systematic biases we have uncovered over the past months and address a plan to mend them. Thus, beginning to lay ground for a new kind of care and value for their artists’ well being.
Then, we move down the chain with:
Returning performers - being held accountable for dedicating adequate amount of time and focus to the proper type of training outside of the studio to be ready for performance. Provided performers have access to the right information, education, and specific training they ought to be held responsible for maintaining their tools sharp and ready for an upcoming return. Think about it, current performers who follow a competently thought out training program both, their skill/craft and physical/mental health, mutually benefit each other and have a better relationship between their career and personal lives. Additionally, it goes without saying that they should also hold each other accountable to speak out against systemic abuse, biases and wrong doing instead of abiding by it.
Further down the chain these returning artists set a precedent for :
New upcoming artists to follow - who will place the adequate value on a thought out holistic development as artists and athletes by preparing their mental and physical health in tandem with their craft for auditions and performances. In this manner young artists currently in school who dream of being part of this ever growing community comprehend the type of commitment and professionalism required to ensure a prosperous career in the industry.
You expect the theater industry to meet your demands of prioritizing performers’ safety when it returns, but when has the theater industry as a whole ever shown you that performers’ safety was a priority to begin with. Change must happen, expectations must be re-aligned, ignored conversations must be addressed, mistakes must be mended, values must be adjusted, and pride must be pushed aside on both fronts if we want theater and live performance to continue being a medium for artists’ voice.
