Teams & Relationships
These are the people that bring your work to life. Pulling together the right team for the right job will make the world of difference not only in your process but in the overall quality of your end product.
Teams
Working with a team of people is inevitable within the performing arts industry. Knowing who everyone is and what everyone does can sometimes be a headache when you are so focused on what you do. Here we break down what different positions you may encounter within a production, and then how that differs between a large vs. small team.
Professional Associations & Unions
In Canada, labour is under Provincial jurisdiction. The Ministry of Labour, Training, and Skills Development governs relationships between employees, employers, and unions. Labour organizing has been central to many of the rights and freedoms most workers are now entitled to, including a 5-day work week, an 8-hour day, employment insurance, health and safety regulations, and parental benefits. Every worker in Canada is entitled to join or form a union or professional association to protect themselves from exploitative employers or improve work conditions, though many workplaces misclassify their workers as “contractors” to avoid their legal obligations to offer fair pay and safe working conditions.
Employees & Contractors
As an artist, the idea of a "regular" or "steady" job probably doesn't apply to you. These days, people are earning income in a variety of ways. When it comes to reporting to the government, though, they want as little ambiguity as possible: they classify workers as either contractors or employees. There are pros and cons to being an employee or a contractor. Let's break them down.
Dramaturgy
A dramaturg (or dramaturge, depending on who you ask), is vital in the process of both play creation and productions of established plays. In Canada, this is a severely underfunded (and by result, misunderstood) craft. This page of APR aims to give an understanding of what to expect when hiring and working with a dramaturg.
Intimacy Direction
An intimacy director (or intimacy choreographer) is responsible for safely and effectively implementing practices and choreography for staging intimacy onstage.
Voice or Dialect Coach
A Professional Voice/Dialect coach works with the performers in all aspects of voice including, but not limited to, Voice Production (timber, clarity, and pitch) skills, learning/integrating a specific required accent, foreign language text, idiolect, or aspects of English clarification for their role. Having a good base technique for this, for their vocal instrument, ensures the longevity for the performer's voice and accuracy for the role.
Volunteers
Depending on the size of your project, you may want to consider engaging volunteers. A lot of the information below is based on The Canadian Code for Volunteer Involvement, a document that outlines best practices when engaging volunteers.