A grassroots group of actors, producers, and stage directors wants to remake the Los Angeles theater industry, which they believe is gripped by a “fearful culture.”
The leaderless group, which is calling itself Re-Imagine LA Theatre, is targeting changes to the Actors' Equity Association 99-seat theater agreement and a potential baseline wage for actors, among other reforms. That agreement, which has different variations for New York and San Francisco, has no budget cap for L.A. signatories. That means a producer could spend $200,000 on a theater production and still pay his actors less than $10 a performance, according to Douglas Clayton, a member of AEA and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, who is active in Re-Imagine. “I think that there are changes that are warranted.”
Clayton issued a call to his fellow L.A. theater professionals in a piece published in HowlRound.com: “Let’s stop being afraid. Let’s talk honestly instead, and be confident in our own points of view, but willing to hear someone else’s.”
He told Backstage he hoped the grassroots group would spark engagement between Equity, SDC ,and their members. “It’s been a generation since the last sea change,” he said. “I am hopeful that there will be lots and lots of public conversation.”
Equity has already started engaging its L.A. membership and plans to release a new strategic plan for the city early next year. Maria Somma, an AEA spokeswoman, pointed to its membership polling and planned focus groups as an indication the union is being responsive to members’ concerns.
“Equity's responsibility is to its membership and therefore is embarking on a campaign to learn what our members think about theater in L.A.,” she said in an email. “The union will create its strategy going forward after analyzing the information gathered from the member survey and members-only focus groups.”
Meanwhile, Clayton said members of Re-Imagine were also concerned about the recent departure of Michael Van Duzer, Equity’s liaison to L.A.’s 99-seat theaters. Equity hasn't commented on the departure, but Somma noted “it is not AEA's practice to make announcements about staff who leave to pursue other opportunities or to retire unless it is one of the executives.”
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