Equity in the News Coronavirus

Actors’ Equity Association is calling for federal COBRA subsidies for health insurance as a new report shows skyrocketing unemployment claims by arts and entertainment workers in New York because of the COVID-19 shutdown.

Actors’ Equity is calling on the federal government to provide health insurance subsidies to members of the entertainment community who have lost coverage due to the impact of COVID-19. 

Actors’ Equity has extended its dues deadline to July 31, 2020 in light of the economic hardships facing its members.

The union, which represents actors and stage managers, has extended the traditional May deadline for spring dues to July 31.

Actors’ Equity, whose membership has been jobless since the COVID-19 shutdown of live theaters across the country, is offering dues relief to those members who need it. The union’s $87 spring basic dues payment, customarily billed in May, has been extended to July 31, and late fees for basic dues and initiation fees that are accrued after April 1 will be waived through Nov. 30.

On Monday of this week, Red Bull Theater, the New York group that specializes in Jacobean bloodbath dramas (think Shakespeare, but gleefully less tasteful), was supposed to be online. The company had announced that they would be reconvening their company from their 2015 production of ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore to read the play — unproduced, unrehearsed, Zoom-style aesthetic — and livestream it. Their normal Monday night series, Revelation Readings, was on indefinite suspension because of the coronavirus, and this free Facebook and Vimeo teleconference event was meant to engage their audience, revive spirits, and honor John Ford’s zippy, 400-year-old incest plot. “Love me or kill me, brother!” That sort of stuff.

The March 30 free online reunion reading of 'Tis Pity She’s a Whore was called off at the final hour.

Actor Evan Casey was two weeks into the run of “The Amateurs” at Olney Theatre Center — a play set during a 14th-century plague — when the Maryland venue closed because of coronavirus concerns. His actress wife, Tracy Lynn Olivera, was deep into her duties as assistant director of “Guys and Dolls,” the spring production at Ford’s Theatre, when that musical was shut down. It has been rescheduled for next spring.

For live theater, the audience is essential. 

"You come to a show, you sit next to a stranger, you guys are laughing at the same thing, or you're intrigued by the same thing, or you're saddened or angry by the same thing," says actress Chioma Anyanwu. "It brings people together and we cannot come together right now. So that's really, really strange to be in that position."

The last show I saw before the great theatrical shutdown of 2020 was the Broadway production of "Six" on March 11. As I sat there in my seat, questioning my own judgement and obsessive tendencies at every moment, I watched a cast hug, kiss, link arms and sing right in each other’s faces.