Current issues affecting theatre in Australia

I agree that the lack of work for performers in this country is an issue, but it is an overcrowded industry. Remember we are a nation of 19-20 million in a huge land mass. We have the population of greater London in an area that would stretch pretty much from Athens to London. So we have the tyranny of distance which makes many of the staples of theatre in the UK and US and europe impossible here. The small to mid level touring that goes on over there simply does not exist in this country and outside of Sydney and Melbourne there are no centres large enough to support a non subsidised professional theatre. Every town of reasonable size in the UK has a receiving house that takes small scale touring and because these towns are at most an hour apart toruing is viable. It takes two days to get to Perth from Adelaide with nowhere in between that is worth playing in. Two days wages for the cast with no return two days expenses running the truck etc etc. Funding is also poor because we are too small. Not enough tax income to give money to a bunch of actors. Media is poor in this country. Despite the fact that more people go to live performances than to the football, football gets the coverage we all know about. Sponsorship is the same. They'd rather put their sponsorship dollar into something that gets on TV. It's late and I'm running out of awake but if you'd like to talk more to me you can find an e-mail on my website which is below here. I'm in Adelaide by the way. PS This is opinion, I'm not necesarily right. Life's too short to stuff a mushroom www.tonymoore.id.au