For all of our members who are just getting started in theater, or for our non-American members who are confused about what the heck we’re talking about, here is a guide to some FAQs about Actor’s Equity.
Actor’s Equity Association (aka Equity, AEA, Eq, etc etc) is the labor union representing theatre actors and stage managers in the United States.
What is the purpose of Actor’s Equity?
The purpose of Actor’s Equity, the same as any other labor union, is to protect the rights of the workers (actors & SMs) and to provide them the strength of collective bargaining with theaters/producers. An Equity contract sets salary requirements, when to take breaks, how many hours you can work during the week, overtime pay, safe & sanitary working conditions, and on and on.
If the theater/producer/director does something sketchy- like your paycheck bounces, or the director wants everybody to be naked in rehearsals for no reason, or the producer wants the cast to perform a song from the show on the local news but won’t pay you extra for it, or the theater doesn’t have heat and it’s -15 degrees outside, etc etc etc, you have legal options and protection that doesn’t involve you hiring your own lawyer.
What is in an Equity contract?
Every Equity contract is published on their website in the Document Library- if you’re interested, skim through the LORT or the SPT contract, that will give you an idea of what a contract looks like. However, the contracts are NOT all the same. There are regional contracts (like the Bay Area Theater contract for the San Francisco area), there are differences between levels of theater on the same contract, even some individual theaters have their own specific contracts (for instance, Ford’s Theater in DC [where President Lincoln was assassinated] has its own special rules in an addendum because it is operated by the National Park Service). It’s important to review the contract for every show you work on, and keep a copy on hand for quick reference- the differences are sometimes small or don’t seem like they matter, like the company has to vote by secret ballot to approve the date of the archival recording on a COST contract, but not on an SPT contract. It seems like it wouldn’t matter, but not following the contract can get you and/or the theater in hot water.
The language in the contracts is very dense and sometimes difficult to understand- it is a legal contract, after all. There are some things in the contracts that even veteran AEA SMs disagree on the interpretation of. When in doubt, CALL EQUITY.
How do you join Actor’s Equity?
There are two ways to join Actor’s Equity (also called “turning Equity” or “taking your card”). The first is by having a theater offer you an Equity contract- this is sometimes called “buying your card” because the theater has to prove to the union (by filling out a form, not like, a test or something) that you are the best person for the part, over all of the people who are already members of the union.
The other way is to earn points through the Equity Membership Candidacy program (EMC).
A lot of AEA theaters offer EMC points for interns, Production Assistants, or non-AEA ASMs. A complete list of the EMC member theaters can also be found in the Document Library.
For every week that an EMC member works as an actor or an SM at a participating theater, you earn 1 point. You need 50 points to join the union, which equals 50 weeks (basically a year) of work on Equity shows. The 50 weeks do not need to be consecutive and you have an unlimited amount of time to accumulate them. However, once you have earned 50 weeks, your next role with an AEA theater must be on a union contract. You have 5 years to take that contract before your points expire. Equity tracks your points, but it is important for you to keep track of them on your own, as sometimes producers don’t send reports in a timely fashion…
[A lot of early-career SMs like to refer to EMC as “Where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.” There is a lot of confusion re: what the rules actually are (and they’re different for different contracts! what was true for you at an SPT theater may not be true for your friend at a LORT theater!), and what rights you do and do not have as an EMC member. Personally, I don’t think I’ve actually ever met an SM who turned via points alone- once you have 40-50 points, you have a relationship with the theaters where you earned those points and will probably be offered a contract instead.]
When Should You Join Equity?
The biggest thing to consider with whether or not you should join AEA is that once you are a member of the union, you cannot work as an actor or a stage manager without an Equity contract. There are a lot of pros and cons to becoming a member of the union. Better pay and working conditions and the knowledge that if something sketchy happens you have a massive organization with a team of lawyers you can call for advice or protection are huge benefits. However, there is also more competition for fewer jobs, and you will be prevented from working on certain projects.
Some things to consider when thinking about turning:
What is your theatre market like?
What’s the ratio of AEA to non-AEA houses?
How many of those AEA houses use AEA ASMs, or do they use interns or hire non-AEA ASMs?
In those AEA houses, do they have resident SMs who do every show, or do they bring in freelancers on a per-show basis?
Are there a lot of AEA readings?
What about smaller companies that hire AEA SMs on the Special Appearance contract?
What is the pool of other SMs like in your area?
Are there more SMs than you can shake a stick at, or is it a pretty equitable (hehe) market?
Are there a lot of other SMs in your age range/skill level?
What is your relationship with the AEA houses?
Do you have contacts at multiple AEA companies?
What is your network like?
Is there an AEA liasion audition or technician cattle call you can drop your resume at, to make sure all of these companies know your name?
Actor’s Equity does not allow the duplication of names among members- to give an example of a common name, there is only one “Laura Smith” in Equity (and she’s a stage manager from Baltimore) so any subsequent Laura Smiths who join the union, whether they are actors or SMs, need a different “Equity Name.” Some people add or just go by their middle name. A lot of women will continue to use their unmarried name, even after they get married and legally change their last name to their husband’s. Some people use a nickname, or make up a completely new name. This doesn’t mean you have to legally change your name, it is just the name that goes in the program and that Equity has your records under.
What is an Equity Deputy?
The Deputy is a member of the cast (it cannot be the stage manager) who is elected by vote by all of the Equity members of the company. The Deputy serves as the liaison between the other members of the cast and the theater management in the event that a company member has a grievance that they wish to report anonymously. They tell the Deputy, and the Deputy (usually) informs the SM first, and then proceeds to inform theater management and finally AEA if the issue does not get resolved. The Deputy also has some minimal paperwork that they fill out to send to Equity. Sometimes a show that has a really large cast with a lot of non-Equity members will elect both an Equity Deputy and a non-Equity Deputy.
Many non-Equity companies have also adopted the practice of electing a Cast Deputy. It’s particularly helpful since most theaters (shy of really big regional theaters with large full-time staffs) don’t have HR reps who handle complaints like most businesses do.
What are the other theater unions?
The arts have many associated unions- film actors have the Screen Actor’s Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG & AFTRA were separate unions and recently merged into SAG-AFTRA) and opera singers and dancers have the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA also includes opera SMs!). Stagehands have the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), designers have United Scenic Artists (USA), directors & choreographers have the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC, until recently known as SSDC), and (instrumental) musicians have the American Federation of Musicians (AFM).
Besides AEA, theater SMs most often have to be aware of the rules for IATSE and AFM. USA and SDC, although they seem like they would impact our life as SMs, mainly govern things like pay scale and billing on publicity materials, which SMs don’t typically deal with- they don’t determine things like hours and breaks like AEA, IATSE, and AFM do.
We hope this helped to answer some of your questions about Actor’s Equity!
