Equity in the News

Actors’ Equity has named Lynn Rhinehart as special counsel, effective immediately. Rhinehart comes to Actors’ Equity from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), where she served as general counsel from 2009 until her retirement from the organization in 2018.

“The Heart of Rock and Roll,” a musical featuring the songs of Huey Lewis and the News, begins developmental work Monday as one of the first shows to do so under the new contract with Actors’ Equity. 

After a strike lasting 33 days, Actors’ Equity has made a deal with the producers trade association the Broadway League to give a fraction of successful Broadway shows’ profits to its performers and stage managers.

The replacement for the Lab Agreement will include five-year terms for salaries with three wage increases, profit sharing following a show's recouping of its initial investment, stipulations for additional assistant stage manager contracts, a minimum of five weeks of rehearsal time for Broadway musicals (four for plays), and additional health and pension benefits.

Performers who help develop successful Broadway shows will share in the profits under a landmark agreement between theater producers and the union representing actors.

Actors’ Equity Association and Broadway producers have reached what Equity is calling a "historic" agreement on a profit-sharing contract model for union members participating in early stage production development.

In a groundbreaking agreement Friday, the commercial producers who finance Broadway’s big hits have agreed to give a percentage of profits to performers who help develop successful shows.

Actors’ Equity Association has ended its strike. The actors and stage managers’ union has reached an agreement with the Broadway League regarding the lab agreement, which governs developmental projects on Broadway.

Actors’ Equity and the Broadway League have reached an agreement to replace the lab contract, ending the strike that began 33 days ago.

This big idea makes a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage look squarely like small-minded incrementalism, and it won’t empty the federal treasury.

But nobody is talking about it except Broadway actors.