Paul Virides

A huge part of the problem is ACE funding discourages anything that looks like “high” pay and most applications severely underestimate the workload required. And producers, GMs and creatives are very rarely properly paid for prep time or for incidentals like post-press night visits. We gotta fix it.

Crisis Deepens for U.K. Entertainment Freelancers as 44% Earn Below Living Wage U.K. entertainment freelancers face unprecedented crisis with 44% earning below living wage, 70% feeling insecure about careers, survey reveals.

For the first 9 years of my career I earned between 25p and £5 an hour. That only changed when I became an ED (just before Covid), and finally earned slightly above NMW. And yet I was on the hook if the shows collapsed. Important stuff @freelancersmake.bsky.social (1/2)

variety.com/2025/theater...

Sorry but this photo is high camp

If you want to counter the (completely overstated) “rise of Reform”, you do it by engaging in debate and leadership and making the case for an alternative way forward. Not cowing to insincere, headline-grabbing garbage just to try and win over some racists who will never vote for you anyway.

Starmer’s speech was a disgraceful addendum to his already zealously populist, ideologically barren government.

This isn’t what Labour is for and it’s a punch in the face to hundreds of good MPs and thousands of party members who are now stuck defending it for fear of being purged. It’s obscene.

My grandparents didn’t come to an island of strangers, nor did they leave one behind when they died, nor will we create one by welcoming people of all backgrounds to our shores. Our diversity is what makes us British in the first place.

Once again I implore gatekeepers to include Greek creatives and actors and staff when you pick up Ancient Greek plays and decide to put them on. If you knew an ounce of Greek history between classical times and now, you'd know why it matters that Greeks get to finally tell their own stories.

Have been quiet on here but we started rehearsals for this this week and it’s already a joy. Come see us!

underbellyboulevard.com/tickets/pop-...

Watching this speech live it’s pretty obvious that Trump doesn’t actually understand how tarries work. Which is… something.

Indhu Rubasingham welcomed as National Theatre's artistic director Leaders from across the industry have hailed Indhu Rubasingham's commencement as both the first woman and person of colour to lead the National Theatre, with producer Sonia Friedman labelling it a ‘mo...

Love this. www.thestage.co.uk/news/history...

I’m locked in war with housekeeping at my hotel. Every day I return to find they’ve switched the air con to “heating” mode (because in Greece they hear their buildings to an ungodly 23 degrees so a cool 21 on the cool setting is like ice for them). And every day I switch it back to “cooling” mode.

If that all sounds baffling, I urge you to spend a little time engaging with Melina Mercouri, Manos Hatzidakis, Mikis Theodorakis & Yannis Varoufakis - not cos they’re the best examples, but because they’re the ones who’ve exported it to the English speaking world far more eloquently than me. (Fin)

It’s SO powerful to see it playing out. Pride in the flag or folk music or local history isn’t something they’re embarrassed about. It isn’t something they use to bludgeon people with. It’s just “there”. An assumed truth. And no right winger can claim to be the only one who cares for the country.

No doubt Greece is generally more right wing than the UK and has had multiple problems with fascism over the last 100 years (including 2 govts and a recently banned party), but national pride isn’t “owned” by the right. The left own it too, perhaps even more purely and unabashedly.

Greeks are so confident about the importance of their (our) culture, but (in the bohemian parts of Athens at least) also fiercely interested in social justice, the power of the arts and the values of liberty and freedom.

Learning lots of things on my travels around Athens but one that we Brits could really learn from: how to have national pride without automatically pivoting rightward. (Mini thread 🧵)

It’s magnificent! (The Parthenon, although the podcast too hehe)

Offensive isn’t it???

🙈 it’s been an emotional day!! I cannot emphasise how wonderful it is to hear a GREEK telling the stories of Greece for once (no shade to the QI guy of course 🙃). PS that intro song has been swirling round my head all day. Magnifique. Or should I say θαύμα!

Very much run the risk of becoming an @sturdyalex.bsky.social stan account at this point but I listened to this today on the Actual Acropolis while sightseeing/reconnecting with my roots and DAMN IT’S GOOD. And that’s from a guy who burst into tears when he saw the Parthenon so it must be true.

a blue and white flag is waving in the wind against a blue sky ALT: a blue and white flag is waving in the wind against a blue sky

In two days I'll be in Athens for a week reconnecting with those roots I spent most of my youth resisting. Isn't that what every single 2nd gen immigrant does in their 30s?

Anyway: tips for places to go/unmissable stops v much appreciated. And any theatre people in Greece/Αθήνα: hmu, let's say hi 👋

But why would you announce the long-leaked Eurovision entry on the same day as the biggest gay-world album drop of the year?? Wild.

Just in time for my trip to Athens 🇬🇷!

Oh good so it turns out the closest Oscars in a generation is also going to be the fucking weirdest Oscars in a generation.

Been working on a thing…

Arts sector’s use of unpaid interns for some roles could be illegal, experts say Concerns also raised that practice prevents young working-class people from finding paid work in creative industries

I've said it before and I'll say it again: it wasn't until I was nearly a decade into my career and a literal chief executive of an organisation that I earned above the minimum wage on a paid role in theatre. We have to fix this.

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

I think what I loathe most about KB is her dressing every inane statement she makes as a “truth bomb” or a “mic drop”. She’s like a teenage YouTuber with 350 followers who *somehow* has ended up in charge of the Conservative Party.

For many, many years now the Telegraph has simply been a pseudo-intellectual tabloid, using longer words and nicer formatting than their red-top rivals, but ultimately nothing more than a sensationalist, clickbait-driven bucket of slop. It's surprising that anyone even takes any notice anymore.

Jannik Sinner really determined to be the bad boy of tennis huh. Djokovic and Rune breathing a sigh of relief. Maddening.

Tariffs 👏 aren’t 👏 a 👏 charge 👏 on 👏 exporters 👏 they’re 👏 a 👏 charge 👏 on 👏 your 👏 own 👏 citizens 👏 you 👏 absolute 👏 buffoon 👏