Spotlight
Self-Taping: The New Rules for The New Normal
A four day minimum turnaround, a maximum of six pages, protection for bank holidays. For years, these have been utopian ideals wistfully longed for by actors adjusting to the demands of self-taping. They are now a reality. A ground-breaking joint agreement between Equity, the Personal Managers’ Association, the Co-operative Personal Management Association and the Casting Directors’ Guild has codified terms of best practice for self-taping, establishing an industry standard…
Spotlight
Both not half: We Need to Change How We Think about Mixed Heritage Casting
In early 2019 I improvised a comedy video in Punjabi. I shot a few angles and cut it together on my phone. I had zero expectations but, inspired by the likes of JusReign and Guz Khan, I was aware that under the right circumstances it might create opportunity. I tapped 'post’. It went viral…
The Stage
Why I won’t be engaging with Equity’s race equality commission
Last week, Equity announced it was setting up an Independent Commission for Race Equality, stating that it hoped to have “a strong, positive working relationship with those who resigned from [the union’s] Race Equality Committee”. As a former member of that elected committee, I’d like to explain why most of us (Daniel York Loh, Rebecca Boey, Matt Lim, Irvine Iqbal, Julie Cheung-Inhin and myself) will not be engaging with the commission…
Burnt Roti
Is enmeshment trauma a cultural norm in South Asian families?
Until a few weeks ago, I'd never come across the term enmeshment trauma. Least of all did I suspect it might apply to me. I was raised by my Punjabi grandparents during my early years and my parents divorced in my late teens, but I never felt that I was traumatised. I now suspect I might have been wrong…