Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat

The WA branch of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, which is the trade union covering performers and theatre crew is currently taking something of an interest in this so called "pro - am" issue. Obviously our primary aim is to strive to ensure that performers and other cultural workers can receive pay, conditions and other benefits broadly in line with prevailing community standards. Otherwise, what's the point of traiing people to be performers at all unless we just want the arts to be something Australians do for a hobby while we enjoy imported entertainment and cultural product. Against this we somehow have to balance all those desires and expectations (however unrealistic) of people who want to "tread the boards" or play in a band or do a stand up comedy routine in a pub or whatever. It's an arts thing basically because you don't often see people working for free as labourers on building sites or working in factories because they love the work for its own sake and want a few minutes of fame before an audience, or for some other reason. Balancing all these competing expectations in a democratic society is a difficult task for the union but we have just developed a draft policy on the issue. That policy is aiming to be a public statement about the criteria the union will use when deciding when, if and how to intevene in productions like this in WA.