Comments on: You Me Bum Bum Train – a bum deal for performers?

By: Autumn | Tom Spencer

Autumn | Tom Spencer — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 17:21:28 +0000

[...] this year around You Me Bum Bum Train using unpaid performers. Critic Matt Trueman and producer Dan Baker were two of a large number of commentators to respond in one way or another to Marcus Romer’s [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 10:18:26 +0000

YMBBT directors and creatives were paid on a production. This document demonstrates they were paid a fee – who’s the mug now?

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzEgzmG0KEmDTjVNYnZWR3JZcWs/edit?pli=1

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 09:56:51 +0000

As a professional actor, having just finished a sell out run in Chichester and a transfer to the West End, I am now volunteering for YMBBT.

Not only am I a cast member but also a ‘crew/scene leader’ and I am telling you now that no one is having a bum deal. It is made perfectly clear to all applicants that it is a voluntary performing job yet we still have thousands of people wanting to take part. It is an opportunity for people to get involved in a theatrical experience that that is frankly amazing.

For Kate and Morgan (as stated in the previous anonymous comment) this is not about making money, its about getting the funding for the next project, or paying off the current one.

I Advise you apply to Volunteer for at least one night, Speak to other volunteers and ask them why and how they got into doing such a show.

cheers x

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 00:25:11 +0000

Really? 250 performers a night in a format that takes 70 guests? Suppose you pay them £100, which for some of them is pathetically low as over 50 of them are professionals and standard rate would be triple that, then you have a nightly wage bill of £25,000, not to mention the 2-3 accountants needed to deal with it all. So yes, you could charge guests a little over £350 each to come but then where would we be? You’d still owe rent and you wouldn’t have even built any sets, lighting, sound or anything else come to that. You’ve hit £500 a ticket and you’re a couple of young people facing bankruptcy having come up with a show format.

Morgan and Kate by all accounts live in a council house and certainly one of them is on the dole, which they forgo during the shows run due to lack of time. I suspect they do the unpaid job they do because they love to do it and yes there are professional luvvies who will find it disappointing but really this is about giving people who can’t afford a theatre show an incredibly special time. I like your writing and your honesty is refreshing but really this sort of critique is better suited to the daily mail.

By: You Me Bum Bum Train « Plays, Films & Plays

You Me Bum Bum Train « Plays, Films & Plays — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:42:20 +0000

[...] about this subsidised show which runs on volunteers and doesn’t pay the performers. Read producer Dan Baker’s thoughts it. Like this:LikeBe the first to like [...]