Flyman
From The Stage

"What," we used to say, "about the workers?" The implication was that in a carry over from a landowning and industrial past, there were those who generated wealth and there were others who spent it. In the fifties, when trades unionism was beginning to flex its muscles, the theatre - notably in the work of John Osborne and Arnold Wesker at the Royal Court - was playing its part by putting onstage the concerns of those who worked for a living.

But, ironically, the theatre itself was still far behind this movement towards recognising the rights of those who had not inherited wealth but had to earn in order to survive. Equity had existed since early in the century but there was still a hierarchy that would have not been tolerated elsewhere. Anyone who was not an actor was very much a second class citizen.

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Flyman
From The Stage

The last couple of weeks have been busy ones for the great and the good in technical theatre and particularly those connected with the Association of British Theatre Technicians. First of all there was the launch of the books of the Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference, which took place two years ago, and then the ABTT Theatre Show itself.

The great and the good, of course, are the main beneficiaries of such events. Humble flymen tend not to be invited to book launches and usually cannot afford the time to go to trade shows. Besides, the injection of Lottery funds into capital projects over the last decade has elevated architects and consultants to a pre-eminence in their influence of what goes on in theatre that has not been seen for a century - since the days of Frank Matcham and WGR Sprague.

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Flyman
From The Stage

Mostly the regulations which increasingly dominate our lives create more jobs - or at least they don't lose us any. No one pretends that power flying, for example, allows for a great saving on numbers of technicians. A shorter working week may lose us some anti-social working hours but it probably means more people are actually in employment. Health and safety provisions usually mean more staff rather than fewer.

But there is another trend that is putting at risk work opportunities and seriously damaging the skills base outside London.

The key to a good touring theatre is the quality of the technical staff. The resident stage manager or chief technician sets a tone which, as Timothy West has recently noted, can have an important impact on the quality of the show at the venue.

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It ain't fair!
By Howard Bird for The Stage

As we all know, only a complete idiot bites the hand that feeds him. So here goes.

A fortnight ago this paper proudly announced The Stage 100 for 2005. In the list were the movers and shakers “whom we believe have had the most impact in the actual staging of productions, so no administrators or PR folk”. Nor technicians for that matter. Not one.

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I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.