There has been quite a bit going on ‘behind the scenes’ for the live performance committee this year. We opted to align our meeting calendar with the Screen Committee to meet four times a year. For several months earlier this year we kept the monthly Zoom informal meetups going, to encourage the habit of designers just dropping in to swap notes and stay connected. For me these have been one of the most enjoyable of the our activities and has in the past been a great way to build the community of designers. We will get it going again in 2025, so watch the socials for dates and times.
You should all by now be very familiar with the APDG resources for Live Performance Designers: the Live Performance Guidelines, Standard Contract and Working Smarter resources. I regularly hear from designers letting me know how valuable these resources are in setting the bar for fees and conditions and the ins and outs of running a design business. These resources, along with other APDG resources, will soon be linked from the new Creative Australia (the rebranded Australia Council) Creative Workplaces website, so may be discovered by a new audience. Remember – whatever you are doing track your hours and share your experiences, both good and not so good with your peers. It is no longer illegal to tell others what you are earning.
However, reports keep coming in about diminishing fees and royalties, the perpetuation of unfair conditions and escalating inequality despite recent legislation for Same Work/Same Pay. We feel that the resources have done as much as they can do to transform conditions for costume, events, lighting, video and set designers [note the alphabetical listing].
We invited Jason Klawein from the MEAA to address one of our committee meetings to discuss the benefits of the APDG working with the MEAA towards improving conditions for designers. At present designers are not identified in the MEAA Live Performance Award, and the feeling is that this would be a place to start – so designers are eligible for minimum award rates of pay, overtime etc. This will be a focus for the new year.
The Live Performance Committee have been involved in the survey on AI and in drafting the APDG submission to the Senate on AI (see AI Taskforce Update below). One designer has already reported a set builder being given an AI-generated design to build – watch this space! It would be great to hear from any of you that are using AI as a regular tool in your practice – the iterative back and forth between AI tools and the designer seems to becoming a regular thing. For live performance designers, please do remember that we own the copyright to our work, so look carefully for AI clauses in contracts – either stipulating how AI is or isn’t to be used or allowing your designs to be used in AI data sets.
We have also been involved with planning for the next PQ in 2027. We are looking for a new curator or curatorial team to lead this endeavour. And we are also a member of a new organisation – Scenolab – which is a member of OISTAT and is a hub for researchers and educators in the fields of design for performance. Please get in touch if you have research ideas you would like to share.
We have been very involved in working with the Bureau of Statistics to reform the descriptors used by the Bureau to collect industry data. The current classifications are very confusing and leave many designers unidentified and therefore not counted. The guild worked with many of the other screen and live performance peak bodies to put together a coordinated submission. The new classifications will be released by ANZSCO on 6 December and we are hoping the new classifications will make it easier for screen and live performance designers to be identified and to be counted in the upcoming 2025 census.
I would like to thank all of the members of the Live Performance Committee for their insights and energy over the year. Thanks to the regular committee members and occasional others: Anna Cordingley, Anna Tregloan, Ben Hughes, Casey van Sebille, Christina Smith, Cris Baldwin, Eamon D’Arcy, Imogen Ross, Isabel Hudson, Jennifer Irwin, Tobhi Stone Feller, Madelaine Barlow, Fausto Brusamolino, Simone Romaniuk, Charlotte Lane…Looking forward to seeing you sometime in 2025 – at the Awards, if not earlier (now is the time to be documenting those shows for entry later next year).
Cheers,
Stephen Curtis
Live Performance Committee Chair
2025 Live Performance Committee Meeting Dates (7:30 – 9:30pm via Zoom)
- Tuesday February 18
- Tuesday May 20
- Tuesday August 19
- Tuesday November 18
Credit: ‘Constellations’ Photo Prudence Upton. Set and Costume Designer Isabel Hudson. Lighting Designer Benjamin Brockman