Hi. I’m Tracy Margieson, and I’m the project manager of the Arts Wellbeing Collective at Arts Centre Melbourne. I’m here today to give you a hot tip on how to re-frame and rethink the dreaded concept of “the show must go on”. This is one of the hardest things to deal within our industry. If your show isn’t ready at 7:30 p.m., it doesn’t matter, 2,000 people are walking through the doors anyway. If your exhibition isn’t hung by opening night, doesn’t matter, the gallery’s hosting the party anyway. If you haven’t finished your grant application by 11:59 p.m., it doesn’t matter, it’s closing anyway. And this leads to massive issues. We start to push ourselves too hard, we might cut corners, we might work through the night, we push people around, we push the people around us, we neglect to our health, our friends, our family, and so on.

But how do you deal with these seemingly immovable deadlines? How can we reframe these things that make our very industry function? Let’s go with three quick tips to help you start on this journey. The first one, look for some moments of finish, so that it doesn’t feel like there’s this one massive immovable, looming deadline that you couldn’t possibly miss. Set yourself some small deadlines. So, let’s say that it’s a grant application. Aim to have the introduction done by a particular date, your budget scoped by another day, your first draft completed, your letters of support finalized, a version sent off for sign-off from any collaborators. By the time the due date comes around, you’ll probably have done about 90% of the grant. Worst case scenario, let’s say you become unwell on the day, you get called into some last-minute publicity thing you just can’t possibly miss, you could still submit a grant that’s 90% done. And getting the high stance that you place on yourself, 90% is probably still pretty damn good.

The second one is to break the rules. We have a lot of traditions in the arts, I mean, the very phrase “the show must go on” is one of our kind of cliches that we go to. We traditionally work right up until opening night. We traditionally work long, long hours if we’ve got a great burst of creativity. We traditionally have a tech week. What if we had a tech 10 days? If the show takes 60 hours to bump in, negotiate with a venue for an 8-day pumping, rather than cramming it into a 5-day pump in and completely burning out your tech team. If the gallery asks for 14 pieces for the exhibition, negotiate 10 in a different layout. Take a step back and question the way that it’s always been done and break the rules and the traditions that really we’ve imposed on ourselves.

The third tip to help combat the show must go on mentality is to be protective of each other. My partner used to work as a stage manager, and one night he was in prompt corner there at beginners call, full house, about 600 people, and an actor on stage was waiting for the final clearance and curtain up. He looked across at her and he her just go and just have this little dizzy spell. He walked over and he said, “Are you okay?” And she said, “I’m fine, I’m fine, the show’s about to start.” And he said, “Don’t worry about them, they can wait. We’re not going up if you’re not well. We can send them back into the foyer for a drink. We can send them home. We’ll sort this out, it doesn’t matter.” If you can be brave and protect to each other, it is so vital.

I hope you found this hot tip useful. “The show must go on” is really tough but we can all play a part and try to make it better. If you’d like to find out more about Arts Centre Melbourne or the Arts Wellbeing Collective, visit artswellbeingcollective.com.au.