Introduction:
Why endure when you can create?

Talented young artists,* fresh from university, usually get a loud wake-up call when they start their first job in theatre. Once confronted with the day-to-day operation of a theatre, the holy aura and utopian visions of collaborative artistic creation fade rapidly: when scenes are reordered just before opening night, when senior members of the ensemble ‘assert their authority’ in subtle and not so subtle ways, when they find their strong, new ideas are ignored or nipped in the bud and first signs of fatigue crop up after months of tightly packed rehearsals and performance dates, having eaten nothing but fast food; when the fear of failure rears its ugly head, blackouts occur and they can’t remember the last time they spoke to their best friend…

The theatre “slowly eats you up”, and you don’t live in a cloud of creative bliss, as you had imagined; instead you “survive” somehow in a permanent state of mental and physical overload. The difficulties of the current situation for artists engaged at theatres cannot be overstated. When choosing our profession and considering its negatives, we might think about the issues that specifically affect theatre artists, e.g. how to deal with stage fright or accepting that you work evenings and nights, something not conducive to a regular family life. What we might not have anticipated are the myriad other, more general grievances, e.g. poorly ventilated, narrow rehearsal spaces, poor leadership behaviour, or unnecessary extra work because internal communication is not working.

Fleeing into self-employment is not a solution either because, firstly, it doesn’t change anything in the theatre system, whose transformation must come from within; and secondly, we are just as likely – if not more so – to push ourselves beyond our limits when working independently.

A society that wants to experience art should not allow artists to exploit themselves for our sake and the sake of art, risking their health. The economic damage would be enormous. Both the theatres as employers and the artists themselves should therefore reach an understanding that they too need working conditions and structures in which they can unfold and sustainably develop their full artistic power.

Fortunately, the people responsible at the theatres are gradually trying to do something about these conditions. Slowly and cautiously, issues are rethought and action is initiated, not least because by now the legal provisions, e.g. in occupational health and safety law, have been tightened. This is quite a challenge for theatres because in many ways a career in the theatre does not lend itself to having a healthy “work-life balance”, as defined in health protection laws. Up to now, this fact was also the reason often proffered for not being able to change anything: “That doesn’t work in the theatre. Everything’s different there.” – Well. Sure.

Itis different, but that fact does not have to stand in the way of new developments and positive changes. Where is creative change possible if not at the place where each season numerous new productions are created? In the opera, up to two hundred people work on and behind the stage to achieve a coordinated, accomplished performance in no more than eight weeks. In an environment that is used to creating something as structurally complex as an opera, it should be feasible to optimise the overall structure of operations cre