Equity News Magazine

Equity News is the official magazine of Actors' Equity Association. Equity News has been around in a variety of formats since 1915.

Dallas–Fort Worth Loves the ITC!

by Gabriela Geselowitz

The Independent Theatre Contract (ITC) is a new Equity agreement designed to be easier for Equity members, staff and employers to navigate. From its plain language to its adaptability, it should make it easy for producers to work with Equity, perhaps for the first time.

The ITC is a single-employer agreement, used a little bit differently at every theatre. For better or worse, this means that Equity companies that might benefit from switching over have to do so one at a time. So let's visit Texas, where in the Dallas–Forth Worth area this one employer at a time shift has snowballed into an ongoing transformation for how Equity theatre works there.

Before the ITC, the SPT was particularly popular in DFW, but there are Equity theatres on several other contracts, including LOAs, both prime candidates for the ITC. The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, as the area is known, has over ten Equity houses in an hour drive radius. One factor working in everybody's favor is that employers tend to get along, staying in constant contact and sharing resources.

"We try to support each other because we recognize that we're an ecosystem," said Elizabeth Kensek, Equity member and managing director of Forth Worth theatre Amphibian Stage, who noted that a lot of theatres find their own niche, be they large-scale musicals, developing new works or experimental pieces.

"I think especially within the last few years many of the theatre leaders have finally accepted the fact that we're not in competition," said Kensek. "We are unique in that we all work at each other's theatres, and most producers in town are still active members of the union and work at other theatres if not their own."

Getting on board with the ITC came in two waves, showing that change happens in Equity theatre with different approaches working in concert. The first wave was organic, members of the theatre community talking to one another. Kensek first heard about the ITC from her Equity business rep during an in-person staff visit, and was impressed when she examined the contract; to her, it felt like a modernized SPT.

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Equity members Dani Nelson (left) and Emily Scott Banks in Bull in a China Shop at Amphibian Stage, produced on the Independent Theatre Contract. Photo by Evan Michael Woods.

"I was very familiar with SPT and I have worked as an actor and a stage manager under SPT as well many times," said Kensek. "I was very pleasantly surprised that a lot of the things that were vague or hadn't been addressed or newer things that we as a community are about but hadn't been put into agreement yet were very present in the ITC."

For example, she found that the ITC was strong on diversity and inclusion issues, such as language regarding using members' proper pronouns and protecting natural hair.

"I thought it was really thoughtfully laid out," she said.

The turnaround to Amphibian Stage moving from the SPT onto the ITC was only a couple of weeks.

"If our union exists to sustain and build work for our members and be in partnership with our theatres, the ITC is the perfect example of that because it's a collaborative process," she said. "It's obvious that people who are actually theatremakers and actors and stage managers had a really strong voice in building the ITC."

Dallas–Fort Worth also had a local voice in building the agreement; Kim Titus served on the ITC Committee when he was a Western at-large councilor, and in addition to offering perspective from the area, he then served as a local resource for his fellow members during the rollout, offering context for the ITC's hows and whys.

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Equity member Zoë Kim in Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?) at Amphibian Stage, produced on the Independent Theatre Contract. Photo by Evan Michael Woods.

"The ITC just provides that much more uniformity for an actor walking into the theatre having some idea of what to expect," he said.

In DFW, it is common for theatres to use multiple spaces or to alter a space in a way that changes its seating capacity. This often ran the risk exceeding the bounds of an Equity agreement and needing to negotiate for a second one in one season. Not only did Kensek feel the ITC solved this, but Amphibian Stage was even able to use it to mount a co-production with another local theatre – which meant twice as many work weeks for the members involved.

Amphibian Stage was one of the first ITC theatres, and it served as proof-of-concept to other local companies. Kensek was a major cheerleader, as was Equity Dallas–Fort Worth Community leader and new Western Principal Councilor J Dontray Davis. Soon, a crop of several local theatres also got on the ITC.

"It's a no brainer to just hop on now while its hot," said Davis (and Circle Theatre, where he is board president, became another early adopter).

That first wave of theatres getting on the ITC captured a lot of excited producers. Right when that burst of activity was dying down, there was a second wave of excitement for the ITC. This happened because the union was proactive; Equity business rep Diosa Bahe came to Dallas in April of this year, meeting with members and employers and holding a town hall to answer questions about the union. Employers getting to meet a business rep, share their concerns and hear the ways Equity has evolved did a lot to rebuild relationships and drum up interest for the ITC. Crucially, this included non-Equity producers who felt the ITC could be an accessible onramp to a relationship with the union.

"Diosa opened many doors. In the next couple of months it's going to be out of control – in a good way," said Davis. "I'm hoping DFW can be a non-office city poster child for the ITC... we've hit the nail on the head with this contract."

ITC advocates are not letting the momentum going to waste. Kensek is still talking to theatre producers in and outside of Texas to encourage them to try the new agreement.

"How can we make the producers feel like they're getting their money's worth and the union workers feel like they're getting protected as well?" said Davis, who feels that the agreement empowers members to be able to understand their contract better, and become stronger self-advocates. "The ITC is a piece of armor that we get to use now to make sure that we know what our self-worth is."

This article is part of a series that explores The New Era of the Promulgated Agreement and The Single Engagement Agreement.