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Giving Peace a Chance
Sanity prevails in the latest 99-Seat Plan discussions
Ashley Steed, Tony Abatemarco, Simon Levy and Joe Stern in the Skylight Theatre courtyard shortly after L.A.Theater Network’s open forum on the 99-Seat Plan, last Saturday
The 2014 tempest over the 99-Seat Plan appears to be subsiding in early 2015 – divisiveness being replaced with consensus that the Plan has more virtues than problems, and that those problems need to be addressed.
This outcome is largely related to the galvanizing influence of the Plan’s defenders, who persistently advocated for the priority of making art over making money, and who showed up in force to two meetings last week: One was a sometimes contentious, mostly respectful public forum hosted by L.A. Theater Network at the Skylight Theatre on Saturday, and the other was a private discussion for Actors Equity Association members Tuesday night at Studio City’s Sportsmen’s Lodge.
Stage Raw Secret Agent 53772 reported from the AEA meeting that the actors/stage managers’ union appeared to be listening in earnest and with a sense of fairness to speaker after speaker who expressed the desire to make more money, but also how the opportunities afforded by the Plan – opportunities to take well-produced productions to larger theaters and/or other cities — would likely not have occurred had the number of rehearsals/performances been drastically curtailed to standards of, say, the Showcase Code in New York, or the Bay Area Policy Project in Northern California.
Among the reasons for concern over the Plan’s demise is the Union’s long documented hostility to it: that former Western Regional director Edward Weston had attempted to gut it even after it was approved by a referendum of its membership in 1987, so that terms for changing it needed to be cemented in an out of court settlement following a lawsuit by Equity members against their own union; the abrupt termination in 2014 of Equity 99-Seat Plan administrator (and defender) after 30 years of service, in conjunction with statements last year by then Western Regional Director Ralph Remington that the Plan needed to go. At the L.A. Theater Network forum, Victory Theatre producer Tom Ormeny remarked that the Plan “stands in [Equity’s] way” while 24th Street Theater producer Jay McAdams put the concern even more succinctly: “Equity has been trying to get rid of the Plan for years. I think that’s a fact. . . They want all shows to go to contract.”
Off-the-record, another producer remarked that though she was concerned, she was also hopeful that the Plan would survive so long as enough of the union membership spoke up on its behalf. “They’re a labor union. They have to abide by the wishes of their membership. That’s their job.”
Secret Agent 53772 reported from the AEA discussion that, to be fair, the Union appeared to be trying to do its job, it appeared willing to work with the Plan, and that perhaps theories of hidden agendas should be shelved for the time-being. As Samuel Johnson described second-marriages – “the triumph of hope over experience.”
Highlights from the L.A. Theater Network forum:
-Actor Tony Abatemarco’s remarks from the perspective of having worked in L.A.’s small theaters as well as its mid-size venues: “There are 22 working [mid-size/larger] stages in Southern California. Less than half hire actors who are based here.”
-Actor Ann Colby Stocking: “It’s an insult to work for $24 a week and to look at somebody else being paid more, or to see administrators collecting a salary at those theaters.”
-Pacific Resident Theatre Artistic Director Marilyn Fox: “What SCR pays [its actors] is a tiny fraction of any show’s budget . . . As actors, we are innocent and don’t realize how delicate the [99-Seat Plan] is.”
-Director Armina LaManna: “Get a business plan on how to run your theaters. . . Change is coming.”
-Blank Theatre Artistic Director Daniel Henning: “That’s not what we’re doing here. We’re not a commercial theater.”
-Producer-Publicist-Playwright Diana Wyenn: “We did fundraising. We made money!”
-Actor Steven Apostolina: “No, you didn’t. Did you return any money to your investors?”
-Skylight Theatre Producer Gary Grossman took exception to the attitude that people who have been producing theater here don’t know what they’re doing. “I’ve been producing theater for 30 years and I know exactly what I’m doing and why I do it. I know that at the end of a season, I’ll have made about $3,000 from [all my] productions.” Grossman went on to suggest that maximizing profits was obviously not his priority.
Notes from Stage Raw Secret Agent 53772:
318 AEA members in attendance. A committed, passionate membership, while not always unified in perspective, remained united in support of Los Angeles theater. How nurturing one’s passion and feeling a sense of creative ownership is as important for survival as $$. Also important to feel the sense of professional self-worth that comes with being paid more.
Some of the ideas & requests put forth:
-a plea for AEA to work with the Under 99-Seat-Theatre-committee in Los Angeles to promote growth within the plan. The committee, being local, is especially attuned to protecting the needs of its So Cal members
-for Equity to designate a staff representative to administer the plan for its members
-for there to be a tiered system that would address the huge jump between the 99-seat-Agreement and the HAT contract.
-for membership companies to be treated differently from a producer’s company
-for there to be a budget cap for companies eligible to function under the plan
-for staff salaries to become a line item on the budget once a show goes into rehearsal
-for actor stipends to be increased
-for the flexibility of the plan to remain functional so that actors can leave a play, be double cast, etc. if they get lucrative film/TV work
-for any profits to be shared equally
-actor right of first refusal for any role originated if the production transfers, travels, etc.
-that there be incentive for growth within a theatre company, financially and otherwise
-that tickets not be given away or discounted
-For only So Cal members to vote on this plan
-For the maximum number of performances allowed to be decreased
-Conversely how longer runs help a theater piece to grow and find it’s audience which then often enables it to transfer
-How the Under 99 Seat Agreement supports larger cast opportunities, new playwrights, and origination of new material
