AUDITIONING MOM

The full article first appeared on 3/22/17 on HowlRound.com – excerpt and link below.

Written by AuditioningMom Rachel Spencer Hewitt.

Check out this stunning data and innovation coming to us from across the pond by Parents in the Performing Arts (PIPA), a revolutionary consortium of theatres in the UK advocating for parent-artists. In this article, I interview PIPA’s founders, actor Cassie Raine and director Anna Ehnold-Danailov, and lead researcher from the Royal Center for Speech and Drama Dr. Tom Cornford and cover their report’s findings, where they aim to take it, and what the impact may be. Read the excerpt below and click for the full article!

“In the fall of 2016, PIPA distributed a survey to gather data on caregivers in the theatre arts and trial resulting initiatives for a specific purpose: to draft a first known charter of ‘best practices’ for caregivers and their employers in the theatre arts intended for widespread use and implementation. The charter hopes to make the theatre more accessible to its dedicated practitioners with caregiver responsibilities…In a time when funding for the arts receives active cuts and remains on short lists for ejection by government institutions across the globe, creating steady jobs within the arts will continue to be a matter of revolutionary reinvention within limited resources. Admission of obstacles by caregivers and other groups within the theatre should not be perceived as reduced commitment or compromised work ethic, but instead should be seen as the pursuit by dedicated theatre practitioners of more efficient means for achieving high production standards…” [READ MORE]

Click image to read full article.

Part 2 covering the interventions and initiatives tried for six months by 15 different companies will come out this fall, 2017. Keep an eye out! Exciting things ahead!

CONTACT AuditioningMom@gmail.com if you would like to be added to the list for the USA FORUMS happening THIS SUMMER in NEW YORK CITY and PHILADELPHIA.