Brilliantly put - well said "My greatest hope (and belief) is that sometime before I shuffle off we will show them how wrong they were" - yes!!!!
On 14 September 2014 17:03, michael szpakowski <[email protected]> wrote: > > It's interesting that the original article uses theatre as a starting > point. Having started out in the late seventies working in the theatre and > keeping a toe in that camp until very recently I can vouch for the change. > I remember on my second job ever in 1977 I asked one of the guys in the > small touring company I was working for what he'd been before he became an > actor. "A burglar", he replied. It was true - he came from a poor working > class area of a big industrial town and rebelled in perhaps not the most > social of ways. He'd wanted out though & learned to play the bass, joined a > band and then got into acting through the many connections and > opportunities there were then ( and which were not tied to expensive > training). He later became quite a celebrated TV performer playing a part > that was related to his earlier life and authentically so. > Many of the people I worked with at that time came from similar working > class backgrounds to my own - I myself am the child of a Polish refugee > turned furnaceman in the Sheffield steel. > Now , unless it is someone who worked their way in through the soaps, > working class accents are produced to order by the "skills" of the largely > privileged cadre who can afford to make it through drama school. In the 90s > I taught theatre to FE students one of whom (the daughter of a classroom > teacher from Essex) went to RADA, through merit not connections. I went to > see her rather star studded West End debut ( a triumph which gave her a > good deal of class satisfaction) and she told me she'd spent three years at > RADA playing "second secretary" or similar whilst the sons and daughters of > those already in the "biz" or simply the well heeled and confident scooped > the leads. > What is the timeline? - I can tell you exactly what it is - when the > working class were fighting and winning in the UK, mid-sixties to 74ish, > miraculously there were ways for us to "better ourselves" in other ways > than struggle. > It took awhile for these gains to be chipped away but it has been downhill > in proportion to the series of (often entirely unnecessary) defeats that > have been the outcome of workers' struggles since the Winter of Discontent > in the late seventies. > > The marginalisation of working class voices in the arts is a consequence > of the fact that our rulers believe they have us licked and under control in > general. My greatest hope (and belief) is that sometime before I shuffle > off we will show them how wrong they were. > michael > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > *From:* ruth catlow <[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Sent:* Sunday, September 14, 2014 1:53 PM > *Subject:* Re: [NetBehaviour] The privileged few are tightening their > grip on the arts > > Do we care if our arts are increasingly practiced, disseminated and > discussed in the media by a privileged few? > > Were the post-WWII gains in diversity an illusion? or did time really > stop, and start going backwards? > If so when did this reversal start? > > Early 80s, mid 90s, early noughties? > > > On 14/09/2014 11:12, marc garrett wrote: > > The privileged few are tightening their grip on the arts | The Guardian - > http://go.shr.lc/1wsoLXu <http://t.co/LqXQEQDy72> > > -- > ---> > > A living - breathing - thriving networked neighbourhood - > proud of free culture - claiming it with others ;) > > Other reviews,articles,interviewshttp://www.furtherfield.org/reviews.php > > Furtherfield – online arts community, platforms for creating, viewing, > discussing and learning about experimental practices at the > intersections of art, technology and social change.http://www.furtherfield.org > > Furtherfield Gallery – Finsbury Park > (London).http://www.furtherfield.org/gallery > > Netbehaviour - Networked Artists List Community.http://www.netbehaviour.org > http://identi.ca/furtherfieldhttp://twitter.com/furtherfield > > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing > [email protected]http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >
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