“Historically, performing artists have been the most precarious of our members, but the pandemic has cruelly exacerbated this reality. This is again the observation of the president of the Union des artistes (UDA), Sophie Prégent, when she compares the revenues by sector from January to November 2021 to those of the same period in 2019. While the actors of the audiovisual have pranced on an increase of 36% of their income, those of the scene suffered losses of 49%.
The media production sector, home to web, TV and film shoots, saw a marked increase last year. An increase that must be qualified. “We are operating at approximately 130% of the capacity of 2019, evaluates Mme Present, but with fewer roles. “
Even for dubbing, revenues grew 8%. These figures bring together the fees and resale rights received by active members and trainees of the UDA. This growth in audiovisual does not only have advantages. For health safety reasons, the number of workers on the sets – including the actors – is reduced to a minimum.
“I see, on the ground, that we use less of small roles for health reasons”, indicates the one who embodies the captain Duquette in Alerts, at VAT. “We only call on what is strictly necessary: the first, second and third roles. There are fewer extras. For the privileged among us who have roles, there is for some an increase in income. I’ve heard actors tell me that they’ve never had a better year than in 2021. “
The pandemic is accentuating the divide. In the same sector, new artists, or whose careers were not established, suffer financially. Like dancers, lyrical and popular singers and stage actors. “For them, it’s really worse than it was”, comments M.me Present. Aid for the transition of works to digital, however, mitigated the financial disaster, believes the actress and president.
“At the worst of the pandemic, when everything was closed, we found that revenues remained 15 to 30%, from memory. We didn’t understand why it wasn’t bad. That means that digital financial support for the performing arts has worked. It was imperfect. It is perfectible. But it probably prevented 0% and 3% of income. “
Double use, double loss
It is therefore the audiovisual sector that currently holds the entire UDA, according to Sophie Prégent. “In 2019, the audiovisual sector represented 54% of our members’ UDA revenues; that of the performing arts was at 18%. In 2021, the audiovisual sector accounts for 67%, and the performing arts for 8%. “
Pascale Bédard, sociologist at the Cultures – Arts – Societies Research Center, recalls that the majority of artists live from a double economy. “Artistic income often has to be supplemented by other sources. These are often jobs in the public sector, often just as precarious, in restaurants or hotels, for example. Or in teaching, but rarely in established institutions. These secondary sources have often also dried up during the pandemic, according to the specialist.
For meme Bédard, we must not only count the loss of income of artists, but all the lost opportunities. “These contracts, in the performing arts, are very concretely commitments for shows. Thus, these losses of “income” are also direct losses of visibility, experience, for the CV, reputation, opportunities for meetings, etc. They are very important in an artistic career. “
The sociologist and professor at Laval University also emphasizes that the soul of art cannot be revealed in a single studio work and eternal rehearsals. The meaning of the work is revealed during its performance, during meetings with the public. The majority of performing artists have been deprived of it since the start of the pandemic.
“For several performing artists (dancers, circus artists, musicians, but also actresses and actors), the exercise of the profession depends on the maintenance of a certain number of skills for which the artist is entirely and individually responsible. »Like physical training, voice training, stretching, playing an instrument, for example.
“It is not because you have no contract that you can afford to stop playing the violin if you are a musician, or to train your body when you are in contemporary dance. And these practices also end up losing their meaning if they do not serve the presentation of a work on stage.
Survive or think about the future?
“We will have to think about employment insurance specific to culture and to self-employed workers, because artists will not go through it,” adds Sophie Prégent. We need lasting measures, a social safety net like the one offered to intermittent entertainment workers in Europe. Emergency measures were essential. “A question of survival, also considers Mme Bédard, to pay the rent, the groceries.
But for the president of the UDA, if emergency support was welcome, it also requires “long-term support.” We are experiencing something historic. You don’t just have to go through it: you have to learn. It has to give something. I understand that when you are drowning, it is not possible to project yourself into the future. But how are we going to do to restart the industry after the pandemic? So that people go back to the theater, to the opera? We should be thinking about that already, it seems to me. And this is not the case ”.