Equity in the News

Over a decade ago, an agreement was made between the Broadway League and Actors' Equity Association, which cemented a weekly minimum wage for actors participating in developmental labs. Negotiations began yesterday between the two organizations for an update to those policies, and Actors' Equity is trying to get the word out.

Actors' Equity has launched a social media campaign and petition calling for changes to the developmental lab agreement as the union begins negotiations with The Broadway League.

With high-profile midterm elections taking place all over the country tomorrow, the nation’s actor unions are doing their part to encourage performers to get out and vote. In a weekend email, Actors' Equity, the nation’s union for stage actors and stage managers encouraged their members to make a plan for voting and figure out the logistics.

Proposition E seeks to dedicate 1.5 percent of the base hotel tax — a 14 percent tax levied on hotel stays in the city — to support arts and culture programs. The city estimates this could add more than $15 million in funding over the next two years.

Landing at a time when there is heightened national awareness around issues of gender equity and parity, New Dawn is just the latest Twin Cities theater company aimed at broadening opportunities for an overlooked talent pool.

Actors’ Equity Association, the national labor union representing professional actors and stage managers working in live theatre, endorsed J.B. Pritzker for governor.

If you go to plays, especially in New York City, you are familiar with the practice of what Actors' Equity calls "nontraditional casting."

Here are five pieces of advice to help theatre in America look more like America today (and none of them include gratuitously changing a character’s race or ethnicity or claiming there “aren’t enough actors”).

According to statistics from the United Scenic Artists, which represents craftspeople in the industry, 44 percent of their membership is female and 56 percent male, noted Christine Toy Johnson, national chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee for Actors’ Equity Association. But 72 percent of jobs went to men during the past eight years, she said.

"Entertainment workers aren't going to see what hit them until they file their tax returns next year," warns actress and tax attorney Sandra Karas, secretary treasurer of the Actors' Equity Association, who estimates that 75 percent of her guild will be paying more taxes this year.