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to start rebuilding its theater community throughout the next
fifteen years. The biggest push came in the mid-1980s and IATSE
members, as well as Canadian actors, directors and writers were
ready to step in.
The result of that support and commitment can be seen
decades later in Canada’s thriving legitimate theater industry.
In Ontario, summer festivals such as the Shakespeare festival in
Stratford also provide work for IA members. Ironically, a high
percentage of theatergoers include more than three million
tourists, many of them American.
The strong connection to the performing arts has ensured a
place for Canadian theatre in the hearts of the nation’s citizens.
It also ensures continued work for IATSE members, whose skills
and craftsmanship are welcomed by the thriving Canadian
theatre community.
THE BRITISH INVASION
In the 1970s, IATSE members in New York were caught
up in the decline of Broadway, while their brothers and sisters
working on stages across the U.S. and Canada were doing a
little better thanks to the success of the road shows of past
Broadway hits. Then, in 1971, the first wave of the British
invasion came ashore in the form of Jesus Christ Superstar.
This marked the first appearance of Andrew Lloyd Webber,
the young Englishman who would transform musical theater
and Broadway with it. With these new shows, staging and
dramatic special effects became as important as songs and
book, dialogue and direction.
Once again, IATSE members found themselves caught up
in a rapidly changing and evolving industry as they were called
upon to create and execute elaborate staging, lighting and sound
design, helping to make this and other shows successful even
when critics disapproved.
ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF
CHANGE IN THE EIGHTIES
Legitimate theater in the 1980s continued to be dominated
by economics. Too often, both dramatic and musical shows
closed after a single performance because their producers
were afraid to risk future expenditures on anything other
than a sure thing. Thus, there were few long-running hits.
The era of the modern spectacle would culminate in 1988,
with the arrival of yet another Lloyd Webber production, The
Phantom of the Opera, with advance sales of more than $16
million. The show attracted such attention and interest that
it virtually dominated the theatrical season — and it revived
interest in the legitimate stage.
Phantom used every effect available to recreate the misty
waterways of the Paris sewers or the city’s nighttime skyline.
Alliance carpenters constructed the interior of the Paris Opera
house complete with box seats and grand staircase. They built
a tilting bridge and a massive grid that could fly up or down
but still be strong enough to support the weight of actors
climbing on it. Special effects included pyrotechnics of every
sort. Computers, operated by stagehands, controlled props and
equipment ranging from the phantom’s boat to the candelabra
that swept in and out and up and down the stage. It was
theatrical spectacle at its finest.
The heightened importance of automation in the
theater could have left members behind, had not IATSE
made such a strong commitment to education and training.
By continuously enhancing members’ technological skills,
becoming fully conversant with new technologies as soon as
they are developed, we have been able to protect our position in
the theater industry. Indeed, this versatility and ability to adapt
to the demands of the workplace — at an extremely rapid
pace — has earned IATSE the respect of theater managers and
producers worldwide.
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