Report highlights theatre actors' financial plight

Hundreds of theatre actors and crews are struggling to stay above the breadline with many working multiple jobs to survive, a shocking report revealed today.

Arts Council Chairwoman Olive Braiden said the average weekly wage for a theatre performer was €456, with many only working an average of 20 weeks a year and suffering frequent periods of unemployment.

“There is I believe a perception in Ireland and many other countries that performing artists enjoy great celebrity, great wealth and privilege but as you can see from this study it clearly shows the opposite is the case,” Ms Braiden said.

“Theatre practitioners are a very well-educated group of people and they have to manage multiple jobs to survive and they do manage to exist on very low income relative to other professionals.”

The report found many were good at managing on frugal incomes and show an ability to manage on short-term contracts, which averaged at eight-weeks in duration.

Around 53% of practitioners said their household has some level of difficulty in making ends meet, with 19% finding it very difficult. Around 29% said they had been in arrears on a household bill.

Despite half of theatre practitioners earning less than €7,200 a year from work in their main specialist area, around one in eight said they would not change jobs.

Mary Cloake, director of the council, said taking into account the many drawbacks of the job many cited it as a vocation rather than a viable career option.

The report on the ‘Socio Economic Conditions of Theatre Practitioners in Ireland’ found just over half of theatre practitioners own their home and only 29% have a pension plan in place.

Around 64% of performing artists experienced unemployment in 2004.

“Essentially that means being out of work or unemployed is the norm for people in the theatre industry,” Ms Cloake said.

Ms Cloake said a quarter of theatre practitioners had problems with the social welfare system.

“A quarter had been required to retrain or apply for alternative jobs, and 19% that is almost a fifth have been threatened with the removal of benefits,” she said, adding these had been cited as commonly occurring ones by resource groups.

“The report quotes one actor as being told to get a real job, and another is quoted as saying because he appeared in TV ads there was an impression in the social welfare system that he was rich.”

The Arts Council said it would be taking up the issues in relation to the social welfare system with the relevant government department and Social Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan after Christmas.

Ms Cloake said the council would be looking to ensure through the Revenue Commissioners and the Social Welfare Department that incomes could be averaged out over a period of years to take into account if a person has a high period of employment.

Olwen Fouere, a theatre actor and founding member of the Associated Theatre Artists, said: “Some years you would be working all through the year and getting a salary, then the following year be subsidising yourself from that year but you are still liable to pay the full amount of tax, so it just doesn’t really make sense.”

Ms Cloake said the Arts Council would be working to ensure the main incomes of performing artists at €5,500 a year and €10,500 a year for production artists was increased.