www.equity.org.uk AUTUMN 2020 Filming resumes HE’S in Albert Square Union leads the BEHIND fight for the circus ...THE Goodbye, MASK! Christine Payne Staying safe at the panto parade FIRST SET VISITS SINCE THE LIVE PERFORMANCE TASK FORCE FOR COVID PANDEMIC BEGAN IN THE ZOOM AGE FREELANCERS LAUNCHED INSURANCE? EQUITY MAGAZINE AUTUMN 2020 IN THIS ISSUE 4 UPFRONT Exclusive Professional Property Cover for New General Secretary Paul Fleming talks Panto Equity members Parade, equality and his vision for the union 6 CIRCUS RETURNS Equity’s campaign for clarity and parity for the UK/Europe or Worldwide circus cameras and ancillary equipment, PA, sound ,lighting, and mechanical effects equipment, portable computer 6 equipment, rigging equipment, tools, props, sets and costumes, musical instruments, make up and prosthetics. 9 FILMING RETURNS Tanya Franks on the socially distanced EastEnders set 24 GET AN INSURANCE QUOTE AT FIRSTACTINSURANCE.CO.UK 11 MEETING THE MEMBERS Tel 020 8686 5050 Equity’s Marlene Curran goes on the union’s first cast visits since March First Act Insurance* is the preferred insurance intermediary to *First Act Insurance is a trading name of Hencilla Canworth Ltd Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under reference number 226263 12 SAFETY ON STAGE New musical Sleepless adapts to the demands of live performance during the pandemic First Act Insurance presents... 14 ONLINE PERFORMANCE Lessons learned from a theatre company’s experiments working over Zoom 17 CONTRACTS Equity reaches new temporary variation for directors, designers and choreographers 18 MOVEMENT DIRECTORS Association launches to secure movement directors recognition within the industry 20 FREELANCERS Participants in the Freelance Task Force share their experiences Key features include 24 CHRISTINE RETIRES • Competitive online quote and buy cover provided by HISCOX. Outgoing General Secretary Christine Payne 18 • Annual or short period cover available. steps down after 40 years at Equity 26 26 IN APPRECIATION Tel 020 8686 5050 VISIT SHOWTIMEINSURANCE.CO.UK Equity members remembered Where and when you need it! 33 PRESIDENTIAL OPINIONS Maureen Beattie talks about her father Johnny First Act Insurance* is the preferred insurance intermediary to and the future *First Act Insurance is a trading name of Hencilla Canworth Ltd Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under reference number 226263 4 2 equity AUTUMN 2020 www.equity.org.uk www.equity.org.uk AUTUMN 2020 equity 3 UPFRONT First steps to recovery Equity’s new leader sets out his vision for the union’s role in reviving the entertainment industry employed, the inadequacy of arts funding, the industry still further and impose Paul W Fleming billionaire producers not giving an inch permanent changes to terms and General Secretary without a fight, the unrepresentative conditions – to threaten the very existence nature of a slow return to work – these of our agreements and the union itself. are our bread and butter. Equity is here However, we have a plan. Sending our FOR EACH OF US AS INDIVIDUALS, not merely to fight for members during army of pantomime dames – the moral the past six months have been tough. the coronavirus pandemic, but to end mothers of the nation – to Parliament Many members haven’t stopped working the pandemic of precarity that has for shows the pragmatic campaigning path to – whether it be caring in the home, taking too long plagued working people in our a stronger industry. We are strengthening up unexpected second jobs or hibernating industry. and reviewing our communications to in home studios. Equity staff have To be fit for that fight, we have to get a higher profile than ever, and we are laboured tirelessly too in makeshift offices genuinely unite members from every there in the face of government. – their kitchens, gardens and bedrooms background. If we aren’t the authentic We are battling to get members back – while caring for family and friends. voice of our black members, members into workplaces so we can flex our Activists, deps, committees and branches of colour, disabled members, women industrial muscle like never before. We have pushed innovation in organising and members, LGBTQ+ members, working have even modernised our insurances education to new limits – very often with so variety members can use their talents an unexpected pet or child muscling into online, and get working to save the venues the latest campaigning Zoom. our communities depend on. The lessons All of us have struggled with our we have learned in lockdown have made mental health, lost chances to share our us better connected as a union, better skills and wrestled with our inability to SENDING OUR ARMY informed – and even angrier about hug our relatives and friends. We know OF PANTOMIME injustice. people who have lost lives to this terrible The public and the whole union disease; we know talented artists of every DAMES – THE movement are with us, despite what those profession forced to give up the careers who would seek to divide us say. Our they love. MORAL MOTHERS audiobooks lifted nurses’ spirits on the If we were just individual working OF THE NATION – TO way to work. Online content was relief people, we would be broken. But we are for parents and carers each evening. not: as a collective of artists and trades PARLIAMENT SHOWS Children’s parties haven’t been the same unionists, we have been made strong. THE PRAGMATIC without live entertainment. The work Sticking together we saved shows and Equity members do has never been shown theatres, won remuneration for new CAMPAIGNING PATH to be more essential, and your union is online content, got TV shows safely back building alliances so government and to work, and tackled harassment and TO A STRONGER engagers understand that. abuse in casting processes. We have paid INDUSTRY Your Equity diary for 2021 is enclosed out more than £1million to members in this magazine, and I’ve already written in need – money which came from the in mine a personal motto, which inspires union, alongside ordinary members class members, we are not realising our and reassures me, and I hope it can do the donating a day’s pay from a supermarket full potential. For the times we haven’t, same for you: job. This isn’t charity for people who are I’m sorry. As your General Secretary I’m Every working person has the right to be vulnerable; it’s solidarity to make us all committed to making changes to ensure an artist. strong. our voice is the full-throated roar of every Every artist has the right to a dignified Covid has put us in unprecedented working person in our industry. working life. situations, but in many ways it has Looking ahead to the next six months, The cause of labour is the hope of the merely shone a spotlight on the battles we face greater challenges still. Bad world. Equity has fought since 1930. The lack producers and the government will try In solidarity, of care from government for the self- to capitalise on the crisis, to marketise PWF MARK THOMAS PICTURES: 4 equity AUTUMN 2020 www.equity.org.uk www.equity.org.uk AUTUMN 2020 equity 5 FEATURE SLUG CIRCUS RETURNS In May DCMS announced that circuses – unlike funfairs, cinemas and restaurants – could not reopen on 4 July. Equity successfully campaigned to overturn this decision ith the world such a miserable, uncertain place, the escapism and innate joy of the circus is needed more than ever. Circuses should be performance spaces that are Wless hampered by the restrictions around Covid, as open air spaces where social distancing can be adhered to more easily than indoor theatres, restaurants and cinemas. But in lockdown, the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) treated circuses differently to funfairs – in June Christine Payne wrote to DCMS outlining the unfairness and lack of logic in allowing funfairs to reopen on 4 July, but not circuses. “A circus is effectively an outdoor event. The tent is simply a roof. Its walls can be opened, lifted up to provide ventilation, rearranged to provide exits at frequent intervals. There are no narrow corridors where people might pass too close. Seating is made to be set up in any configuration,” Payne wrote. “The whole thing is designed to be rearranged at a moment’s notice. It is what has been done down the years as circuses move from town to town. Other elements – the ticket office, the toilets, even the catering facilities – are outside the Big Top in the open air.” Once the government relented, in July, Equity campaigned against local authorities that refused to honour pitch sites promised to circuses. The ongoing uncertainty for circuses on what they could and could not do - alongside the nationwide lockdown, and localised lockdowns in areas with Covid spikes - continued to impact all performers and people involved in the sector. In August, General Secretary-Elect Paul Fleming was invited on to both the BBC and TalkRadio to talk about Equity’s campaign for more clarity and support for circuses. Dan Wootton on TalkRadio echoed Equity’s concerns: for many children, especially those in working class families, it is the only live art form and performance they will see all year, and remains an inclusive category of performance, travelling to all CANNON regions throughout the year. Equity’s organisers will continue campaigning for more clarity from the government on circuses and proper support, until parity is achieved, ministers listen and act, and circuses are treated with the FODDER? respect and given the support they deserve. 6 equity AUTUMN 2020 www.equity.org.uk www.equity.org.uk AUTUMN 2020 equity 7 FILMING RETURNS ockdown was huge wasn’t it? All of us dealing with our own walls, lengthened chats to friends and family by phone or Zoom, our FILMING IN THE Christmas & Greetings Cards Lown individual mental approach to a new confinement, with very little let-up save for an hour of outdoor exercise and a nip to the shops if necessary.