Behind the Scenes: Journal of Theatre Production Practice
Document Type
Article
Abstract
The lockdown, cancellations, and uncertainties of COVID-19 triggered a large-scale exit of skilled professional technicians, managers, and designers from the Australian arts industry. A significant gap in the national workforce of production artists has since emerged, forcing arts organisations to work with smaller teams and employ younger people with little to no training or knowledge. These pressures are beginning to impact the industry’s ability to meet the post-COVID demand to stage live performances, yet little information has been collected to fully comprehend the issue or to suggest solutions.
Conducted throughout 2023, this research sought to understand the current situation of the skills shortage in the live performance industry of one Australian state – Queensland – considering viable strategies as well as how tertiary institutions could work with performing arts organisations to address this issue. Employing a qualitative, action research inquiry method, this research partnered with six leading arts organisations as co-researchers in focus group data collection. The resulting data revealed the ten major factors influencing the skills shortage in Queensland. This paper examines both these factors and the existing strategies that organisations have adopted in an attempt to reduce the loss of production artists. We then present three aims for Australian arts organisations attempting to restore their production workforce and provide healthier, more sustainable careers for production artists. This research is the first evidence-based, co-designed Australian strategy for engaging and retaining production artists within the industry
Recommended Citation
Rixon, Tessa and Brumpton, Anthony
(2024)
"Stemming the Flow: Strategies to Address the Production Arts Skills Shortage Within Australian Theatre and Performance Practice,"
Behind the Scenes: Journal of Theatre Production Practice: Vol. 3
:
Iss.
1.
Available at:
https://via.library.depaul.edu/bts_journal_of_theatre_production_practice/vol3/iss1/1
Comments
This article revision was submitted by authors of "Stemming the Flow: Strategies to Address the Production Arts Skills Shortage Within Australian Theatre and Performance Practice”, Rixon, T. & Brumpton A., which was originally published in Behind the Scenes, Journal of Theatre Production Practice, Vol. 3 on 11 October 2024.