Stage Technicians and Designers in the City of Buenos Aires during the Pandemic: the Aggravation of Labour Precariousness

Abstract

Based on an analysis of the state of the art, current legislation, and interviews, I will investigate the working conditions of stage technicians and designers in the city of Buenos Aires who belong to the alternative theatre circuit. I intend to reflect on the problematic construction of the identity of technicians and designers as workers. We will begin by contextualising the social and economic consequences of the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic in culture in general, and in the alternative theatre circuit in Buenos Aires in particular. We will address the main circuits of the theatrical field, focusing specifically on their modes of production and contracting. We will introduce our object of study: stage technicians and designers. We will mention their characteristics, their problems, and specific demands. We will look into the unions, associations, and groups that bring them together. We will give an account of the main actions developed in the first two years of the pandemic. The central hypothesis is that the appearance of COVID 19 deepened the labour precariousness that stage technicians and designers were already experiencing before the pandemic, and exacerbated the problems of the alternative theatre field in Buenos Aires in general.