Author: Gelblum, Seth

Publication Year: 1981

Media Type: Report

Summary:

The professional stage actors' union, Actors' Equity Association (AEA), has struggled for sixteen years to protect its members who work without pay in New York's nonprofit Off Off Broadway theatres. The current focus of the struggle concerns whether actors in an Off Off Broadway (OOB) production of a new play have any rights in a subsequent commercial production of the play. This article analyzes the unique characteristics of the actors' unions, and looks at possible solutions to the Showcase Code problem.

Abstract:

The professional stage actors' union, Actors' Equity Association (AEA), has struggled for sixteen years to protect its members who work without pay in New York's nonprofit Off Off Broadway theatres. The current focus of the struggle concerns whether actors in an Off Off Broadway (OOB) production of a new play have any rights in a subsequent commercial production of the play. This article analyzes the unique characteristics of the actors' unions, and looks at possible solutions to the Showcase Code problem.

In August, 1966, in the first attempt to enforce the original Code, AEA ordered two of its members to stop working at Cafe La Mama, an OOB theatre. The theatre's producers claimed that the Code's conditions would force them out of business, and after several weeks, the union agreed. AEA then wrote a new Code that officially allowed its members to work for free under conditions limiting performances, admission and advertising, and requiring that the case be retroactively compensated if the production went commercial. OOB flourished in the following years, and several OOB showcases, such as The Boys in the Band and Hair, moved on to become Broadway successes.

CONTENTS
Difficulties of a union whose members will work for a song.
The positions of the parties.
The producers.
The Playwrights.
The actors.
The future of Off Off Broadway.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Organizational Planning