Can you believe that Safe Stages, the venerable health and safety resource for theatre makers in Alberta, was published twenty years ago?
CITT Alberta has been undertaking an important and ambitious project: updating Safe Stages, our sector’s foundational health and safety resource, and turning it into an online, mobile friendly, easily accessible and updatable resource for us all. Over the past two and a half years, a dedicated CITT Alberta subcommittee of theatre volunteers has been actively developing a plan to modernize and expand this essential tool. We are pleased to share some significant progress:
● Identification of sections requiring updates
● Preliminary review of suggested revisions
● Identification of new subject areas for inclusion
● Call for expressions of interest and costing from qualified companies
● Selection of an expert contributor for content updates
● Shortlisting two potential companies to develop the online platform
● Initial collaboration with mental health organizations to support new content in this area
Our next major milestone is securing funding to bring this work to completion. While our volunteer efforts have carried the project far, realizing its full potential requires financial investment from across the sector.
Planned updates include:
● Revising and expanding existing safety content to reflect current best practices
● Introducing new chapters addressing mental health and psychological well-being in the workplace
● Transforming Safe Stages into an online, searchable, and interactive resource to ensure accessibility for theatre professionals wherever they work
We are applying to the Canada Council for the Arts to hopefully cover the majority of our funding needs. We still expect we will need grassroots support to help bring this to fruition. As such, we are also seeking financial support from theatres, unions, industry partners, educational institutions, theatre practitioners, and interested individuals.
Our total projected budget for the Safe Stages 20th Anniversary Update Project is $60,000. We are inviting organizations to consider pledging support in any amount between $250 and $5,000 (or more if possible). We will gratefully accept contributions of any size from anyone interested in helping us move this project forward. Every contribution brings us closer to completing this much-needed update. All contributions will be recognized in the new edition of Safe Stages.
On behalf of CITT Alberta, thank you for considering this request. Your commitment today will directly contribute to a safer, healthier, and more sustainable future for theatre professionals across Alberta and beyond.
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What is Safe Stages?
- originally, a joint initiative of Theatre Alberta and Alberta Human Services.
- an occupational health and safety resource (190-page binder) for the Alberta theatre community with best practices, forms and additional resources
- a guide to Alberta’s occupational health and safety legislation for employers and workers in the theatre industry—it contains information applicable to all theatre companies, managers, technicians, artists and volunteers in the industry—from the largest of professional and amateur theatre companies and venues, to the smallest of independent productions and found spaces where theatre is produced
If you would like to download the original 2006 version, it is available here: Download Safe Stages. This document was first published in 2006. CITT Alberta is currently working to revise and update a new expanded web-based edition. This is a large undertaking for our volunteer organization but we are committed to producing this for the the theatre industry.
We have completed our proposal request process to help us create the Mental Health section as well as proposals to create a new web-based access format for Safe Stages and updates. Details on both are available below.