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But, even when you get a break, you can’t quit the day job. Stage Directors UK did some research, and made some alarming discoveries. It found that a director working on four productions at major theatres (a very successful year) is unlikely to earn more than £25,000. The mean average annual wage for a stage director in 2013–14 was £10,759 a year, and the median was only £5,000 a year.
A new landscape for artists now exists: where these core workers now have a trade union to represent them, which will work for better pay and conditions across England; where they can work together to challenge exploitative practice, be represented independently and democratically and raise the bar for artists.
Fixed prices also prevent Hamilton from adapting to nuances in demand. Demand is likely stronger for Saturday evening performances, compared to Wednesday matinees, and this should be reflected in price. Similarly, demand is probably higher during the pleasant fall weather, relative to the dregs of summer. Fixed prices don’t adjust to these shifts in value.
Cultural policy has got to live with a greater degree of uncertainty and a greater degree of risk than social policy, because in the realm of culture we cannot have a completely lucid, arithmetically clarified environment with perfectly confident predictions about the outcome of the actions we take based on various types of data. We just can’t have it.
Each and every one of our sectors will be impacted,’ said John Kampfner, chief executive of the Creative Industries Federation, an association for arts organizations across the U.K. ‘We need to ensure that the creative industry is front and center in the difficult discussions and negotiations ahead.