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Issue No. 176 | 02 May 2003 |
Solidarity Forever
Interview: Staying Alive Bad Boss: The Ultimate Piss Off Industrial: Last Drinks National Focus: Around the States Politics: Radical Surgery Education: The Price of Missing Out Legal: If At First You Don't Succeed History: Massive Attack Culture: What's Right Review: If He Should Fall Poetry: If I Were a Rich Man Satire: IMF Ensures Iraq Institutes Market Based Looting
Charities Brace for Medicare Backlash Court Throws Out Cole Prosecutions Child Actor Dodges Broken Voice Rio Tinto: $40 Million for Boss, Eviction for Workers Winning Poster Shouts at Freeloaders May Day Tragedy Claims Union Lives Westfield Cleaners to Down Mops Question Marks Over Nursing Home Burn Payout Highlights Compo Fears Costa Blows Whistle on Canberra Raid
The Soapbox Solidarity The Locker Room Postcard Bosswatch
Bob Gould Sprays Gerard Henderson War and Peace A Strange Light A Little History Does It Have To Be?
Labor Council of NSW |
News Child Actor Dodges Broken Voice
Fifteen-year-old Benjamin Nicholas was facing the poor house after nature intervened mid-way through the production meaning he could no longer play the pivotal role of Dodger. But under a Code of Conduct developed by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, the show's producers, IMG, found him a place in the adult cast. MEAA NSW secretary Jonathan Mill says the agreement, was established to deal with the large number of child actors in the show - 40 at any one time and more than 100 during the live of the production. "The agreement principally covered how adult and child performers interact - you're not a guardian, or a teacher, so we need a Code of Conduct to protect both the children and the adult cast members," Mill says. Part of the Code addressed what would happen if a boy's voice broke - with an agreement that best efforts would be made to integrate the boy into the show so that termination of employment would be a last option. "Lucky, Ben's voice broke during rehearsal's in Singapore, so we had more time to rehearse him into a new role within the adult ensemble created especially for him," Mill says.
"IMG were fantastic agreeing to the proposal in the fist place and then carrying it through both in letter and spirit with a serenity and understand and the whole episode really underlines the importance of the union negotiating a good agreement up front." And the postscript? Ben has been nominated for a 'Green Room' award - one of only four performers nationwide to receive the honour - for his work as 'Dodger' in the days before his voice broke. Media Mongrels Vie For Orwells Meanwhile, what have Immigration Minister, Phillip Ruddock, Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe and 'Bagdhad Bob' got in common? They are among the many contenders vying for this year's inaugural Orwell Awards. The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance has created the awards, named in honour of the creator of the original Big Brother, to highlight abuses of media freedom, both in Australia and overseas. Other nominees include the Senate Privileges Committee, the former Federal Defence Minister Peter Reith, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and federal Attorney-General Daryl Williams. Winners will be judged on demonstrated obstruction - deliberate or otherwise - of the media and the public's right to know. They will be announced 6.30pm Wednesday 7 May at The Fringe Bar, 106 Oxford St, Paddington, NSW.
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