Usva’s student theatre technicians resign

Five student theatre technicians at Usva culture centre have resigned out of anger about the new direction the centre is taking.

The students were on-call employees for theatre performances, but the board of the cultural centre for students recently decided to no longer work with students in that capacity, according to artistic and business director Bram Douwes. ‘They were disappointed by that decision and subsequently chose to resign’, he says.

The on-call employees used to work under the supervision of a professional theatre technician, but that individual left the organisation last year. ‘Since then, there hasn’t been any guidance, and the situation was no longer tenable’, Douwes says. ‘We are going to work with professional freelance theatre technicians from now on in order to bridge that gap. We will be transitioning to a new model which no longer has room for on-call staff.’

No money

According to Douwes, Usva would have continued to work with students if the professional theatre technician had not left. ‘It’s a position that we didn’t want to be in. We no longer have money to employ a professional theatre technician 40 hours a week, so we have to come up with an alternative solution’, he says.

The student cultural centre has hired two freelance theatre technicians in the meantime. Eventually, a team of four freelancers will be responsible for theatrical performances at the venue.

24-05-2016