Theaters around the UK have been advised to replace the traditional ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ greetings with a more gender-neutral alternative to promote equality and diversity.
The new guidelines were pushed forward by British actors’ union, Equity, who proposed a different approach to be more inclusive of the LGBT+ community, including the audience as well as performers.
“We do not use ‘ladies and gentlemen’ back of house and this is being phased out in our front-of-house announcements,” the National Theatre spokesperson claimed in an interview with The Sunday Times.
At the same time, the Royal Shakespeare Company confirmed that a “comprehensive review” of their operations would take place in order to meet the modern standards of “all announcements, signage and the introduction of some gender-neutral facilities.”
Speaking to The Sunday Times, the theater claimed they would continue to “strive to create environments which welcome and support trans people and people who identify their gender as fluid.”
While not everyone is onboard with this idea of inclusiveness, the major theaters seem to be ready to abandon traditional approaches in an attempt to be more welcoming to everyone.
“Coming to the theatre is a shared and communal experience in one single auditorium and we want to please our audience and give them a great evening,” Nimax Theatres’ co-owner Nica Burns added before explaining how phrases such as ‘ladies and gentleman’ can easily be replaced with a simple ‘welcome’ or ‘good evening.’
“We wouldn’t want anyone to feel offended or annoyed.”
As for the Equity’s guidelines on dealing with LGBT+ performers, they suggested:
“Avoid backhanded compliments or ‘advice’ regarding to appearance, clothing, voice quality, identity or the performer being ‘brave.’
“It is hard for trans actors to build a career out of the very small amount of trans-specific roles if these are the only roles for which they are actively sought.”
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Replaced!