Editorial

Abstract

To begin, an observation about the topic which this issue of Canadian Theatre Review addresses: Theatre is discussed most often as art, but theatre is also a site of labour, as the existence of unions and professional bodies such as Actors’ Equity and the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres evinces. These organizations, and others like them, protect the working conditions of their members. Their function is crucial, but it is one that carries implications, as it organizes theatrical labour through what is, fundamentally, an industrial model, based on the segregation of workers into discrete categories of specialization. Some of the implications are problematic, as many of the articles in the issue suggest: The divide between various modes of labour in the theatre is not neat and tidy, particularly in the case of small companies, where the artistic director may also be an actor in, and director of, productions mounted by the company, as Sky Gilbert discusses; or, when professional theatre is being produced in northern Canada, as Michael Clark writes. In a blunt assessment of the state of labour relations in Canadian theatre, Ivan Habel argues that, in addressing the various conditions of work, the contractual protocols for actors have expanded into the cumbersome, if well-intentioned, Canadian Theatre Agreement. He argues that the unwieldy agreement requires an onerous commitment of time if it is to be implemented appropriately, suggesting that it has become largely inaccessible for those whom it ostensibly serves: theatre artists.