Independent or Entrepreneur? The Impact of Economic Rationalism on Australian Fringe Theatre Practice

Abstract

This research investigates how the introduction of economic rationalism within Australian cultural policy and the subsequent concept of the creative entrepreneur has impacted theatre practice in Australia at a grass-roots level, and questions how their sustainment within political and creative discourse has had a lasting effect on fringe theatre practice. This thesis considers how professional Australian theatre practitioners in the independent sector perceive, create, and deliver their work, and examines their practices against the model of creative entrepreneurship.

The research uses a qualitative multiple-case-study methodology. The data were collected through interviews with key personnel from six independent theatre companies and organisations from Queensland (Matrix Theatre and Belloo Creative), New South Wales (Darlinghurst Theatre Company and Sport for Jove Theatre Company), and Victoria (Red Stitch Actors Theatre and Elbow Room Productions), as well as from document and archival analysis. The data are situated using a review of the pertinent literature related to the creative industries concept (CIC) and the concept of creative entrepreneurship, and the development of independent theatre within the Australian theatre field. The findings of the research indicate that independent artists are intrinsically entrepreneurial, they seek out opportunities in the space between, rather than move in the same direction as the structure of the wider group; or they try to penetrate the field of power (Bourdieu, 1983) and find ways of operating outside of the conventional habitus of the field in order to develop a model that is legitimate, creatively self-sustaining, and not wholly reliant on government funding.

This thesis makes an original contribution to the fields of creative and arts entrepreneurship, and arts policy by providing a deeper understanding of independent theatre practice in relation to the Australian theatre ecology.