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.

The Single Engagement Agreement and a New Era for Prepaids

by Gabriela Geselowitz

If the Independent Theatre Contract ushers in a new era for smaller Equity theatres, the Single Engagement Agreement is its little sibling, streamlining how Equity members work at non-union theatres.

The first rule of being an Equity member is to not accept theatre work without an Equity contract. But that doesn't mean that Equity members can't work at non-Equity theatres. Prepaid agreements allow Equity members to work on a special contract in an otherwise non-Equity production. Until last year, the two most popular were the Guest Artist and Special Appearance Agreements.

These agreements are called "prepaid" as a contrast to most other Equity agreements, where producers agree to bonding: Putting up enough money in advance to pay out certain necessary costs, typically two weeks' salary, pension and health costs and some fees. After the end of a show's run, once the employer has fulfilled their end of the agreement with the union, they get the bond back. On the rare occasion that something goes wrong and the employer doesn't pay up, Equity uses the bond money to cover any funds still owed. So, for example, if a show closes early, members still walk away with some compensation – in fact, it was one of the issues that inspired Equity's first strike over 100 years ago.

In a prepaid agreement, the employer pays in advance money that should be required on the contract (including health, pension and dues), but there is no bond. Equity members get to work on contract at a non-union theatre, but unlike in a bonded agreement, there are no cash reserves to pay out to members if something goes awry.

Prepaid agreements allow Equity members to work on a special contract in an otherwise non-Equity production.

You can walk potential employers through this process with the How to Hire Me letter, which is available on the member portal to share with non-union producers you hope to work for.

Equity member James Darrah first worked under a prepaid about forty years ago, and has continued to work under them from time to time as an actor and as a stage manager.

"It's like spots on a map through the years," he said.

While many members never work on prepaids, Darrah is far from alone. In the 2024–2025 season, 2.7% of Equity contracts were on prepaid agreements, which is to say over 7,000 work weeks for members all across the country. And for the members who do use it, it can be a lifeline to pay the bills in an area with few Equity theatres, or a chance to keep union protections on a project that really inspires them or the opportunity to build a relationship with a theatre. Prepaids are also an important organizing tool; it is common for theatres to start their relationship with the union using prepaids before moving on to a typical Equity agreement.

[Prepaids] can be a lifeline to pay the bills in an area with few Equity theatres, or a chance to keep union protections on a project that really inspires them or the opportunity to build a relationship with a theatre.

When Equity member Jackie Davis worked on the Guest Artist Agreement several years ago, she found it a positive experience, working at a theatre excited to hire her and other union members for a production.

"It brings everyone's game up when you're able to intermingle and have who you want to have in the room," she said. "To play and work and tell the stories. And when you have those kinds of experiences you want to keep having them, so you work towards the goal of being able to hire more union actors."

In her experience, the prepaid was already working well.

"I've never personally felt like I was taking a contract that had a lot of red tape," said Davis.

In the past, there were two main prepaid agreements with differences based on an employer's financial qualifications: Guest Artist and Special Appearance. But beyond those, three cities also had their own versions of the prepaid agreement, with even more nuances. Like with independent theatre, this was more complicated than it needed to be. As with the ITC, a committee got together to solve the problem.

In March 2025, the Single Engagement Agreement (SEA) debuted, unifying all of the prepaids.

Equity member T. Rick Jones does most of his union work on prepaid agreements, and he stumbled on to the SEA when he went to the member portal to see if the Guest Artist Agreement had been updated. Instead, it was gone. He reached out to his business rep, who explained the situation and sent him the SEA. He found it to be an improvement, and he continued his stage manager work with Legacy Theatre in southern Connecticut, working with them to make sure they understood and followed the new agreement.

"The language was a little more specific," said Jones. "The SEA answers a lot more questions than the Guest Artist did."

The SEA, like the ITC, is also adaptable according to a theatre's resources.

"Because we had a level of flexibility under the SEA, we had options. The Guest Artist was a little bit more constrained in ways that this new SEA is not," said Darrah. Like Jones, he worked with an old prepaid employer, The Studios of Key West in Florida, to adjust to the new agreement, and found it really accessible for a new play series.

For the ITC, being as concise as possible was key to making the contract usable everywhere. The prepaid agreements needed the opposite approach, not only assimilating the differences between them but outlining provisions that had, for some members, fallen through the cracks. The section on rehearsal schedules, for example, has been beefed up. For another, media terms are finally outlined in the SEA, making it less likely for producers to try to use Equity members' likenesses without additional compensation.

Like the ITC, the SEA is often working at its strongest when members don't even notice a difference. Last year, Front Porch Theatricals in Boston offered an acting job to Davis, who had worked there as a director in the past. She felt secure with her contract and is now working on her third SEA contract there.

"This transition into the new SEA seems to be smooth and a lovely continuation of getting work and doing work," said Davis.

Members are hopeful that if the old prepaids were an onramp to becoming an Equity theatre, the SEA could be even more encouraging. After all, the SEA says at the very beginning, "This contract is intended as a beginning step in a theatre's progress to a fuller association with Equity."

"It's great to have a contract like this to dip their toe in and learn a little bit about the rules before they move up to a higher contract," said Jones.

No matter what a theatre's trajectory looks like, the prepaids are a crucial tool for creating more job opportunities for Equity members. And the SEA is another way that the union is operating just a little more efficiently, and maybe, a little more accessibly for employers and members alike.

Prepaids are also an important organizing tool; it is common for theatres to start their relationship with the union using prepaids before moving on to a typical Equity agreement.

"The SEA is absolutely a terrific idea," said Darrah. "It is positive growth for changing times. Within the rules and parameters of the SEA I see a lot of flexibility. Combining those two contracts is going to make it more linear and easier for Equity to manage. That is smart and intuitive. It tells me that Actors' Equity has been listening to its members as well as to its signatories. That is good for our community and our future."

This article is part of a series that explores The New Era of the Promulgated Agreement and its particular popularity in the Dallas–Fort Worth area.