Actors’ Equity Association is a union for live theater performers and stage managers, negotiating better pay rates, working conditions, and protections. The organization also aims to preserve live theater and has branches in major US cities. Members have access to health and pension plans and assistance in negotiating contracts. The union has a history of promoting equality and fair treatment and opposes segregation and the Hollywood blacklist.
Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) is an employment organization for live theater performers and stage managers. Directors and choreographers have a separate union, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, while television and film actors belong to the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Some artists prefer to belong to the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA); circus performers, showgirls, comedians and magicians, for example, tend to be in the AGVA.
Like other union organizations, the Actors’ Equity Association negotiates on behalf of its members better pay rates, working conditions, set hours, and other protections. Theaters wishing to host Equity Actors must meet certain conditions set forth by the Actors’ Equity Association, including meeting basic salary requirements. In theaters where Equity and non-Equity actors mix, this can lead to inequality and unrest at times, as Equity actors typically receive a higher rate of pay.
In addition to protecting performers and stage managers, the Actors’ Equity Association also has a stated goal of keeping alive the tradition of live theater in the United States. The Actors’ Equity Association was a key player in the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts and continues to support a variety of initiatives that promote and preserve live theatre. For example, the AEA helped protect several historic Broadway theaters from demolition in the 1990s, arguing that they were an important part of American cultural history.
This organization was founded in 1913 by 112 theater actors, with the aim of breaking the stranglehold that theater owners exercised on most actors. In 1919, the Actors’ Equity Association merged with the American Federation of Labor and sought formal recognition as a union. Actors’ Equity is headquartered in New York City, which has been the home of America’s live theater community for centuries, with branches in Orlando, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Members of the Actors’ Equity Association have access to health and pension plans, as well as assistance in negotiating contracts and benefits with individual theatres. The Actors’ Equity Association also has a long history of promoting equality and fair treatment among its members; he has historically strongly opposed segregation, for example, and has also opposed the infamous Hollywood blacklist. This union continues to be an innovative force in the theater community while keeping live theater accessible and relevant to Americans.
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