At the University of Sydney, associate professor Ian Maxwell recently returned to the results of a study he co-authored around the health of 782 working actors.
The nation's first wellbeing study of actors, released in 2012, had shown high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress in the profession, with one-quarter of actors reporting they had experienced bullying and harassment in the workplace.
Geoffrey Rush responds to the Federal Court judgment in April.Credit:AAP
Re-examining the findings in the wake of the #MeToo movement and high-profile defamation Geoffrey Rush case, Maxwell, the lead investigator, found examples of yelling and putdowns, bum slaps and unwanted sexual advances disguised as rehearsal.
One person was grabbed on the backside under the pretext of exploring gender politics, while a drama student said he was pressured to have sex with a well-known actor for the "contacts".
The findings showed working lives "punctuated by sometimes petty and sometimes acute experiences of abuse," says Maxwell.
Seven years on, Maxwell says he would be surprised if stage actors were as accepting now as the respondents who had then shrugged off the unwanted behaviour as something that "came with the territory".
Attitudes have shifted around the reporting of harassment and bullying, none more than on the stage, a matter well overdue, says Zoe Angus from the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA).
But Eamon Flack, artistic director of the Belvoir Theatre, insists it was well underway even before #MeToo.
"Since the #MeToo movement began I've heard such horror stories of people who have been put into awful situations through carelessness and ill will and I think that's revolting," Flack says.
"I know there have been great artists who have walked away from acting because they didn't want to have to go through such experiences again. You work in theatre for love, not money; that great love for theatre is deep and real and we don't want it to be as flawed as it has been."
Allegations of inappropriate behaviour by Rush towards a co-star in the Sydney Theatre Company's 2015-16 production of King Lear – aired in court and subsequently judged in Federal Court to be false and defamatory – have served to deepen the conversations.
Australia's major performing theatre companies are well advanced in drafting common standards around sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying in the theatrical workplace, working with the MEAA and Safe Theatres Australia, an artist-led initiative. The artistic and executive directors of nine member companies of the Confederation of Australian State Theatres (CAST) met this month to finalise a common framework governing the reporting of unacceptable behaviour, grievance resolution and disciplinary action. They are Belvoir, Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse, Circus Oz, Bell Shakespeare, Black Swan State Theatre and Theatre Company of South Australia.
CAST companies have already signed up to industry principles of zero tolerance of sexual harassment or bullying; and fairness, confidentiality, transparency, and support in complaint investigation and grievance resolution.
But workplace policies are different for each company and a uniform set of standards would fill gaps and inconsistencies across the theatre industry, making it easier for actors, crew and other creatives to be confident of their rights and obligations as they move between companies.
"Before, there were so many different set-ups at different companies," Flack says. "Now they’ll be the same everywhere, they’re talked about openly on the first day of rehearsals.
"This is how you begin to change the culture. You put everybody on the same pitch, whether they're a brand-new grad or a big, powerful pillar of the profession."
'It's still baby steps'
A working actor for 20 years, Helen Dallimore is headlining the stage production of End of the Rainbow with State Theatre Company of South Australia and has observed a dramatic cultural shift.
"There's now a conversation and that starts on day one of rehearsal," she says. "We are told what is and isn't acceptable in terms of behaviour. Of course, it takes time to break down an archaic system so it's still baby steps, but it sends a message that people are no longer going to put up with what happened in the past… Five or even two years ago, it was every man, or should I say every woman, for themselves."
Helen Dallimore and Nic English in rehearsal for End of the Rainbow.Credit:Sia Duff
Director Elena Carapetis also sent the cast of End of the Rainbow an emotional risk audit of the script, pointing out moments of potential violence, physical and sexual contact, swearing, racism and homophobia, where it occurred, why it was necessary for the story and its emotional purpose, with an invitation to talk about those issues well ahead of rehearsal.
Last September Live Performance Australia – which represents commercial and independent theatre producers, music promoters, major performing arts centres and venues, stadiums and arenas, arts festivals, music festivals – adopted national standards, as did Screen Producers Australia.
Under this code, signatories are responsible for proper record keeping, a swift investigation of all formal complaints, police referrals where warranted, and support and counselling where there is a reasonable risk to an individual's personal health and safety.
The obligations of procedural fairness apply equally to the person against whom the complaint is made – they are to be informed of any complaint, be given the right of reply and protection from vexatious complaints, and advised if an adverse finding has been made.
Australia's drama schools have also agreed to review their teaching methods and curriculum to empower students to protect themselves.
Such institutions, the University of Sydney's Maxwell says, have historically struggled with reconciling broader societal values with what might be perceived as the legitimate demands of training actors, when evocation, manipulation, and sharing of strong memories, sometimes trauma, is regarded a key aspect of training.
Five or even two years ago, it was every man, or should I say every woman, for themselves.
The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is giving priority to professional development in cultural awareness, risk assessment and scene direction involving intimate or physical action.
And it is collaborating with industry and academic partners so that students graduate into a sector "where there is a shared language and understanding of ways to undertake creative development, rehearsal and performance processes," according to NIDA.
While regular inductions of the rights and responsibilities of cast and crew are now occurring for each new stage production, the MEAA's Angus says, the quality and style of those inductions varies enormously between companies. Funding for training of under-resourced, small- to medium-sized companies is being explored.
But where the theatre sector is reforming, the screen sector still has a way to go, in part because rehearsals are usually conducted to camera and are not necessarily cast-wide.
Angus cites instances of screen productions where an HR manager or a producer had been appointed as the go-to, "safe" person of first contact for cast and crew.
"That is not understanding the vulnerabilities and the fears and concerns that performers or even crew have in raising issues," she says.
In theatre, not all companies had "quite got their systems in place yet but we understand we are in transition" Angus says. "Still, I do think in the last 12 months we have seen the beginnings of real change in Australian theatres as workplaces."
The MEAA brought out British intimacy director Ita O'Brien this year to train screen and theatre directors, and a union committee is developing intimacy guidelines. These were brought to the table at the forum of Safe Theatres Australia in March 2018 and are a "brilliant idea", says Flack, easily put into practice and likely to become as standard as fight direction.
"At the moment any on-stage action that involves fights, lifts or stunts goes onto the show’s risk assessment and is handled by a fight director. Once embedded, intimacy will work the same way," she says.
"It will be part of the risk assessment and handled either by the director or an intimacy director according to a set of best-practice protocols."
There are different versions of the protocols around the world but O'Brien's involve producers identifying scenes of intimacy and sexual content and agreeing where the boundaries lie, putting in place covering for genitalia, requiring a closed set and considering an intimacy coordinator to "sculpt intimacy".
CAST's proposed workplace policies will cover the reporting of unacceptable behaviour, grievance resolution, and disciplinary procedures and would apply equally to all theatre professionals from volunteers and interns to the technical crew as well as actors and directors and board members.
The problem is fixable, says Belvoir’s Eamon Flack. Credit:Janie Barrett
"I feel like the problem is fixable and it's being owned by everybody and that's the really beautiful thing," Flack says.
"It is not just owned by the policymakers and the organisations, it's being owned by artists as well. This is not being put in place as a top-down change, it's coming from below, and that's the best thing about it. There is real hope we can fix this."
Dallimore's hope is that the media spotlight will have a "knock-on effect in the public discourse", making each potential perpetrator less confident of their privileged position to bully or harass, and that their behaviour will eventually die out.
Maxwell is optimistic yet cautious. He says the "enchanted circle" of the drama class or the rehearsal room remains a risk for exploitative conduct in the tension between the competition for roles and the rehearsal process in which the actor is encouraged to reveal vulnerabilities and build trust with fellow players as part of the creative process.
"The fundamental problem is it's a buyer's market," Maxwell says. "I can't imagine a mechanism that would [safeguard against] that, the horrible thing of 'whatever it takes', and that worries me."
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