Minimum Pay

What Shenton needs to do to convince me of his position is to provide some evidence as to the scale of the problem. Not anecdotes about actors having to take second jobs to keep going. The industry has always been packed with people working as waiters or in call centres or whatever until they get their big break. There will always be more actors than there are acting jobs for them to do.

And that disparity between the number of roles and the number of trained actors is only exacerbated by the increase in the number of drama schools and other institutions providing training for actors. The more people who get trained, the fiercer the competition, the more out-of-work actors there will be. People will always want to follow their dreams.

I want something concrete that explains how big the issue of low paid/unpaid work really is. Is it 10% of shows in London? 5%? 20%? I know that people are working under those circumstance in London and beyond. But what is the scale of the issue?

If the research is out there, I would be really interested to see it. It will serve as useful framework for any discussion.

The vast majority of Fringe festivals have many productions where the cast and crew aren't being paid.  There is no way that any company can pay people on festival levels of income.  They are useful opportunities to develop new work and test it out with audiences.

There will be plenty of people who will continue to review festivals.  And that is great.  Our future critics will cut their teeth reviewing fringe and festival pieces.  

And anyone who thinks that local papers pay good rates for theatre reviews is deluding themselves.  I was once asked to step in to cover a show and was offered double the usual rate because it was short notice.  I got £20.  And that was only a few years ago.

Whatsonstage relied on unpaid reviewers for vast swathes of their content.  Indeed I suspect most of what is left of their regional coverage is still unpaid.  Will that stop companies plastering star ratings and pull quotes from WoS on their posters?  Of course not.

The SWP gets Art Council funding.

It is not just actors who dream. All too often you hear of those rogue model agencies who charge the hopeful an arm and a leg to join their books - and never get them any work.

In many ways, you can view the way some drama schools charge a lot for auditions as a form of exploitation. I have heard tell of figures up to £150 to be seen - and they don't give any feedback other than yes or no. So if you are applying to a few, you can be out of pocket of close to £1k by the time you factor in travel and other costs. And the drama schools can get away with it because so many people want to enter the profession.

Yes, there are costs involved in running entry auditions. Even more so if you are running auditions for musical theatre when you need to provide pianists. But those costs do seem excessive - as most of those on the panel will be members of staff doing this as part of their job! £150 is a lot for admin...

No it isn't: southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/support-us/

Not to say that some productions that go through there wouldn't be (if they've had a production grant or whatever ACE call them). 

Also I can't speak with great authority on ACE but my own Arts Council experience was that again, pay was not a 'hard and fast rule' thing in terms of how much people should be paid. AND you don't actually have to PROVE that you paid that (at least not in Wales) it's taken on 'good faith'. So again the actual scamming scoundrels would get away with it (in the short term at least)

All on good faith over here too. It may have been an issue on a show I worked on.
Depending on the producer musicals at SWP usually pay about 200 a week, too low for Mark Shenton's approval.

I did a whole host of low pay gigs early on. I set myself a basic rule on my pay: I wouldn't do a show for less than a ticket to that show. Felt fair for someone learning the ropes. As long as everyone is getting bugger all then I'm fine with it. One fringe producer has recently got a nice pad in fancy bit of East London, but will happily stick cast on 100 a week plus profit share and no profit is found at the end of the run... someone is making money and not others. Not on really. It's why I support producers who run an open book and let every company member view the finances at the end. Of course numbers can be fiddled but it helps.

There is a lot of exploitation financial and otherwise in acting. We would do a lot better to ban drama school audition fees and CD workshops before banning profit share fringe.

And critics need to look to their own behaviour. There is one now-notorious blog who requested tickets to almost every single show on Vault Festival this year, yet reviewed only about three. Of course requesting a press comp is not a guarantee of attendance or review, but requests should be made in good faith, ie on the intention of reviewing. Blithely requesting hundreds of comps when you cannot physically attend shows a level of carelessness towards the fact these small companies and artists rely on ticket sales to cover their costs. Requesting a comp with no intention of attending leaves a seat empty that may have been sold to a paying audience member.

Has it? Where?

Just seen it on his Twitter feed.

It makes his article seem even more of an ego trip as he must have known that he would be shifting focus to NY when he wrote it.

Not a fan, he doesn't half come across as full of an inflated self importance

Mark puts some meat on the bone.

www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2018/mark-shenton-why-i-will-no-longer-review-shows-that-dont-pay-actors-and-crew/

I've genuinely, involuntarily said "Oh f*** off" at that article.

"I will only read reviews and features written by people who are paid to write them."

Is just an excuse to extend critical snobbery (fear?) of other writers. I'm all for getting paid for my writing. But my reviews for unpaid sites are no less valid.

Also Shenton is being very quiet on the issue of how we work out playwright's salaries. My current commission is already working out at less than minimum wage, and it's not close to done. I'm ok with that, I signed up for that, because I feel it's a worthwhile investment of time/lack of money for the future.

This and observing a lot of the replies to tweets I'm afraid all reeks of self serving, and self promotion.