
WEIGHT: 56 kg
Bust: E
1 HOUR:60$
Overnight: +70$
Services: French Kissing, Toys, Deep Throat, Uniforms, Lapdancing
Those who love the theatre appreciate its capacity for world-building and imagination, transporting audiences far beyond the four corners of the stage. Now, the industry is having to do some hard creative thinking of its own.
Many of those who work in-house have been made redundant in the wake of the pandemic, while the numerous freelancers who bolster these staff have been left without work. Backstage theatre industries face not just a crisis of opportunity if audiences are reluctant to return, but also existential questions around what digitisation and underfunding might do for their craft.
All are waking up to a radically changed new world. Instead of the stage it hit screens via YouTube, its unusual format testament to the unprecedented conditions under which it was created. It was to be an opportunity for family, friends and industry figures to enjoy the culmination of their hard work over the ten month programme.
But director Milli Bhatia persisted, striving to imitate the rehearsal process using Zoom. Backstage, designers were replaced with video editors; TV actors were brought in to offer guidance on lighting and self-recording. The show was eventually watched by over 2, people, far more than would have been able to visit in-personβalbeit without the revenue. It came together, Lewis explains, because the team refused to view the digital world as an inferior working environment. Many in the world of theatre share this conviction in their craft, but the reality paints a bleak picture of their professional futures.
Lewis was one of the lucky members of the thousands of backstage staff whose job prospects have been decimated by the pandemic. A large proportion of those are missing out on any support at all at the moment from the self-employed scheme. Roni Neale, a freelance stage manager, believes that working conditions have long been in need of reform.