Company B's Parity Pay Policy About To Change

For the past 25 years, everyone at Sydney's Company B (Belvoir St Theatre), from the artistic director to the actors to the stage hands to the box office staff, all have been paid the same (just over $25 an hour). Back in 1984, when the building housing the Nimrod Theatre Company was about to be demolished, big name supports like Mel Gibson and Nicole Kidman pulled out their pocketbooks to save the structure, a former tomato sauce factory. At the time it was necessary that no one, especially big stars, received big salaries. This added to the allure of the company's sense of community and equality. Though everyone seems to be pleased with the parity system, the administration is looking for ways to help those individuals, especially senior staff, who may be held back by its restrictions. Read a full article here.

Blanchett & Hoffman Form Theatrical Alliance

Oscar winners Philip Seymour Hoffman and Cate Blanchett have formed a theatrical alliance with London’s Ambassadors Theatre Group. ATG's joint chief executive and creative director Howard Panter called the initiative "a new creative bridge to create, produce and exchange work that would not otherwise be produced." ATG, which runs the West End's Trafalgar Studios, said Monday that the Sydney Theatre Company, run by Blanchett and her playwright husband Andrew Upton, and Hoffman's LAByrinth Theater Company in New York would become associate companies. Under the arrangement, the American and Australian companies would stage work in the West End theater, and British plays would travel to Sydney and New York. The first play to get the collaborative treatment is Riflemind, Upton's play about an aging rock band's reunion, which opens in London on Thursday under Hoffman's direction.