Equity in the News February 2020

Actors’ Equity has provided its staff and union members with guidance on “maintaining business continuity,” should a large coronavirus outbreak occur, the union said Thursday. 

“If this had been something that we just caught wind of with six months or three months to spare, we would have gone under for sure.”

Just over a month and a half after Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) went into effect in California on Jan. 1, Liz Lisle, managing director of Berkeley, Calif.’s Shotgun Players, considers her company lucky. AB 5, California’s new bill aimed at reining in employers who incorrectly or wrongfully classify workers as independent contractors, has sent shockwaves through the California theatre community, especially small, non-Equity companies.

On Sunday, February 16th, Stage Managers from around the country gathered for photographs commemorating the Stage Manager Centennial, including over 120 Stage Managers in New York City's Times Square. February 16th, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of a motion carried by the Actors' Equity Association executive council to change the existing contractual language to include Stage Managers.

Actors’ Equity Association will commemorate the Year of the Stage Manager February 16, 100 years after a landmark decision that encoded the place of stage managers in the union.

Actors' Equity Association, the national labor union representing more than 51,000 actors and stage managers, has released the following statement in reaction to reports that Rep. Lorena Gonzalez and Rep. Christy Smith will seek $20 million in additional public arts funding for small nonprofits in the next budget.

California Law Needed, Actors Union Says:

A newly effective California law that makes it harder for employers to classify people who work for them as independent contractors is badly needed, according to a just-released survey from the Actors’ Equity Association.