Eighteen months ago, Stage Directors UK began a process which started with a question, should we become a Trade Union?  

Numerous meetings later, much research, discussions with you, our members, and others in the U.K. and abroad, lawyers, union specialists, civil servants and a vote, led us to decide that we would proceed.    

This decision was not taken lightly, and we proceeded with diligence; success was not guaranteed but the question needed to be asked and the effort had to be made.   

Though this decision was ours alone to make we realised it is bigger than us, it is about our profession as a whole – how do we see ourselves, what do we want our future to be and are we satisfied with the status quo?  

Part of what we do as directors is facilitate change, but our industry is often resistant to change; directors, choreographers, movement directors, fight directors and intimacy coordinators chose optimism over fear, hope over stagnation.    

Today, I bring you the news that SDUK has been successful in its bid to be added to the list of Trade Unions.  This achievement is a huge accomplishment for the organisation and the profession.  Though we celebrate the achievement we understand that there is much more work to do.  Many of you will have questions, and we will do our best to answer them in the weeks and months ahead, but for now, on behalf of our General Manager Tanja Raaste, our co-chairs Pooja Ghai and Matthew Dunster, the SDUK Board and myself, we thank you for your support and we salute you for making change.

Harold Finley General Secretary The Stage Directors UK Union