Posts by Jacqui Dunn
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Craig - I suspect any organization with a live-wire like you in it would be bound to succeed. You'd be an asset on any committee. No kidding:))
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Are the members of the actors' guild clear on what the current dispute is about, have they been adequately consulted, and do they support it?
Well, it's anyone's guess, Giovanni - the only people who will know that are those who belong to it and attend meetings/read newsletters and emails. If you go by other people's opinions and the disparate snippets released through the media, you'll say no, probably....
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I've been following this and other threads with increasing despondency, noting that the language and emotions are increasingly nasty and violent, so I'm asking for some calm.
Please consider the following:
There's a fear that teachers will suffer if they strike, due to their union's failure to focus and let the public in on really key points: that conditions are not good in their industry, that those conditions need addressing, and that pay is not the major issue. But the media splashes "pay dispute" all over the subject, and somehow that's how the public sees it. It's over "pay".Actors in New Zealand are likely to suffer because of the confusion caused by Actors' Equity's demands, its lack of response to questions being asked, and its apparent inability to clearly outline what it wants. It has failed to let the public in on it.
If Actors' Equity is anything like the old version I once served and belonged to, it is underfunded and always scratching for resources, many of those purely "people-power". Its executive has to keep abreast of what's happening in a fairly diverse industry while also maintaining their own careers, as well as getting information out to the members. Sure, their actions and reactions may have been piecemeal; gathering actors together for urgent meetings, given that there's rarely a dozen in any one production at a time, isn't so easy. Frances Walsh may be the union organizer, but she may be only part-time, because that's all the union used to be able to afford when I was on the committee.
There are lots of people firing off lots of stuff, real and imaginary, fact and gossip, in fora and articles up and down the country, so just catching up would be difficult for any individual. The union has been roundly criticized for a great deal of what it appears to have done and not done. My thoughts about it, at this stage, is that there is still much conjecture. What headlines is not necessarily the truth, for teachers' union and actors' union.
My feeling is that local actors are being used as pawns in a much more international game, but that's just my feeling. I won't know the truth until it all comes out.
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ballet is not as spangly and glamorous as it sometimes appears
Having worked with a woman who had to give up professional ballet through injuring herself all the time, I'm sure you're right.
I look forward to those later years. If it's anything like your reminiscing about sex in foreign lands, it'll be a doozy! :))
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Loved this, Sally.
As lucky first (the trial model) in my family, I had a similarly "forced-by-circumstances" entry into dance. I broke my ankle aged 2/3, and when it mended it was turned in. A dancing teacher began lessons across the road in the small town we lived in - she taught tap, ballet and Highland & Irish dancing. Oh! Tap! Ah! Ballet!! Be still my beating heart! It was decided that learning dancing would correct the wonky foot. Yay! Ballet! Tap!
But no. Parents went for the others.
But, but, Highland dancers don't wear spangly costumes! They don't do tappity-tapping in spangly shoes!
But my parents refused my entreaties, and National Dancing it was, and I have to say, as a child prone to bronchitis, it was truly wonderful to aid breathing and strengthen bones and muscles, but they never did the Highland Fling in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Marge and Gower Champion never did the Irish Jig either.!! I had a residue of resentment for many years over that.
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My mother told me about walking towards her work, following a very tall, very shapely young woman who worked in the same building. Sauntering along towards them were two young blokes, muttering to each other and looking very appreciatively at said young woman. As my mother passed them, she heard one say, "Yeah, but think of the climb up!"
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Yarns from the Shanghai Press Gang...
:)) Teehee!
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Well, just lately Sacha, because I have spent a large amount of time* reading (and commenting on) all the blogs, this does seem the case, but then I think, maybe it's my fault?
*Can I say here that being laid up, unable to get out much without assistance, and forbidden to drive is the most boring thing. I wonder how people who are totally and unendingly bedridden or housebound due to irreversible damage or illness don't go completely mad. At least there's an end to my curtailment.
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Gosh, loved that Nina Paley clip. Thanks for that!
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Oh, I've possibly wrongfooted myself here. Is what I've done a sort of thread hijack? Sorry.