Making sense of working in theatre
The theatre is undeniably an exciting industry to work in; it’s also highly competitive and not always very well paid. But don’t despair. Unlike coal mining, manufacturing fax machines and holidaying at the good old British seaside, UK theatre is thriving.
Latest figures show that one-in-four adults go to the theatre and the industry adds over £2.6 billion a year to the UK economy. Arts Council England plays a big role and regularly invests over £100 million in over 230 theatre organisations and individuals, providing the backbone for theatre in this country.
There’s also a huge diversity of jobs within the theatre industry, meaning there’s something to suit every talent or interest. From technical to creative and management roles, there’s much more to the theatre that just what you see on the stage.
Below we have broken down theatre into eight areas:
Black and minority ethnic people in theatre
Independent Theatre Council’s (ITC) Fast Track programme has offered black and Asian people a chance to train in arts and theatre management since 1997.
The annual programme, which starts each September, was set up to encourage more black, Asian and other minority ethnic people to get into management roles in UK theatre.
Go further
Check out the Black Arts Alliance
Tamasha’s Developing Artists Programme
(TDA) is a positive action professional development programme for emerging British Asian theatre artists (designers, directors, actors).
Disability and theatre
Independent Theatre Council’s (ITC) Fast Track arts management programme was run for deaf and disabled people for the first time in 2007. It was set up encourage deaf and disabled people to get into management roles in UK theatre.
Shape runs the Link Up programme for deaf and disabled Londoners involved in the arts.
Extant challenges the idea held in mainstream theatre, that blindness impedes exciting physical performance. It has developed working methods with blind actors that have started to break down these barriers.Its youth theatre programme is aimed at 13-25 year olds with a visual impairment.
Stagetext is a registered charity which provides captioning services to theatres that want to make their productions accessible to the nine million deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people in the UK.
