Ethics for a show in a theatre (Thoughts of Others)

As I am not currently working full time in a show I looked online for other perspectives about ethics as a performer in a theatre. One article I found particularly interesting can be found at http://geoffshort.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/code-of-ethics-for-the-theatre/, it contains a list of ethics for within a theatre written in 1945. This list predates equity and modern day contracts, yet the standard ethics seem very similar to those of today. With regard my thoughts on ethics, which I have already blogged, I can see a lot of the same thoughts here. For example, one of the points is,

 "I shall play every performance with energy, enthusiasm and to the best of my ability regardless of size of audience, personal illness, bad weather, accident, or even death in my family."

I raised a similar point about always giving your best, however, I think that nowadays you would be excused and allowed time off if there were a death in the family! Also, there is no mention of warming up in this list. Even though it is a list specifically for actors and not dancers nowadays there would be some form of vocal warm up required before a performance. These are good examples of how ethics can change over time and become out-dated. Another point made in this article is,

"I shall remember my business is to create illusion; therefore, I shall not break the illusion by appearing in costume and makeup off-stage or outside the theatre."

This is a good ethic and one that is certainly still used today which I did not mention when blogging my initial thoughts.

I am going to also locate an old contract of mine to see what ethics we were told to abide by and blog these findings too.