NAKED BOYS SINGING! was developed and premiered at the 65 seat Celebration Theatre under the 99 seat plan. It ran there for a record year and a half. It went on to become the second longest running musical in Off Broadway history running 12 1/2 years. It had over 30 domestic productions, 20 international productions, translated into 9 different languages, played on 5 continents, and made into 1 movie. All made possible by the 99 seat plan.
Absolutely right-on, good sir! AEA, my parent union, has consistently lied to the membership about this destruction of the 99-Seat/Waiver Plan. By firing the Equity 99-Seat representative on such flimsy grounds that he successfully sued them in court and won a settlement, they thought they’d gotten rid of the fellow with the most Institutional Memory. Won’t work. We can fight them and win, especially in voting against the rep’s on Council when next there is an election. We can write all our friends outside of L.A. County and demand the same of them. I have gotten strong results (an Agent, a Job) from acting in small theatres here. Yes, I could have used some money for doing it, but realistically, the money ain’t there. And no amount of proselyting will make it so.
Myron.. eloquence is thy name.. I review local theatre. The impact on me will be interesting. Not an Equity member, I have advocated for LA Equity members to bolt! Form their own version of the 99 seat plan and let the debbil take de hindmost. The Company Theatre thrived in the Seventies because professional actors were able to create new and exciting theatre and work TV and Film (not lesser arts to me!) to pay the rent on the store front while writing the grant applications and rehearsing the show, manning the box office, building the sets, doing publicity and cleaning the bathrooms. It’s ART and should be. Bolt the Greedy AEA and make ART! I so long for the days when the Art mattered. You can name a dozen small companies who swing for the fences and should not be so lumbered by the very union who is supposed to help them.
Bravo, Myron! Thank you for not being circumspect. And for recognizing that there really aren’t two sides here: morally, ethically, artistically. Just Equity’s bad behavior and the valiant attempts of L.A.’s union actors and other theater artists to deal with it. Hopefully, right equals might this time. And the Los Angeles intimate theater scene will prevail!
Regrettably you’re completely wrong with all of this Mr Meisel. The problems with the sustainability of LA theatre have to do with 1) very bad new plays – on a consistent basis- which don’t resonate, stand out or inspire. 2) 3rd tier quality administrative personnel who in themselves are uninspired and wholly conventional. 3) DEMOGRAPHICS – in a city which is overwhelmingly people of color the almost all white nature of the majority of LA small theatre companies is in of itself a recipe for the current failing status.
And alongside all this is the basic reality that if you are running a business where you are charging the public then, yes, you do have a responsibility to PAY them with some minimum standard of payment imposed. And yes, any theatre that can’t sustain themselves under this reality well deserves to go right under, as is properly happening. The problems with LA theatre, Mr Meisel, are much, much bigger than the law.
A possible motive for Equity is its’ being left in the cold, in their minds, by the recent amicable merger of SAG and AFTRA. In its’ rejected state, Equity may feel that bringing their members to heel in the cause of union wages and protections might make Equity more acceptable in an eventual extension of merger to include it, which of course misconstrues the purpose of 99 seat, which aside from its’ creative ingenuity and art for arts’ sake, is the nurturing and exposure of talent to the film-tv consortium, where the REAL money is, if, of course, you’re into that sort of thing.
I couldn’t agree more. Well, I could – but Myron seems to cover it all! This should be coupled with what Tim Robbins and LBPH’s Andrew Vonderschmitt had to say on the subject. AEA has slit their own throat! This 100+ year old ‘union’ thinks the only way to stop the rampant use of non-union talent in touring shows (that are ‘direct from Broadway’) is to put it on the customer at the box office in having them ‘ask if it’s Equity’. Lamest response to internal issues by a union EVER!
Thank you so much, Myron.
NAKED BOYS SINGING! was developed and premiered at the 65 seat Celebration Theatre under the 99 seat plan. It ran there for a record year and a half. It went on to become the second longest running musical in Off Broadway history running 12 1/2 years. It had over 30 domestic productions, 20 international productions, translated into 9 different languages, played on 5 continents, and made into 1 movie. All made possible by the 99 seat plan.
Brilliant. Thank you for including so many levels of the argument, the consequences, and the possible motivations.
Absolutely right-on, good sir! AEA, my parent union, has consistently lied to the membership about this destruction of the 99-Seat/Waiver Plan. By firing the Equity 99-Seat representative on such flimsy grounds that he successfully sued them in court and won a settlement, they thought they’d gotten rid of the fellow with the most Institutional Memory. Won’t work. We can fight them and win, especially in voting against the rep’s on Council when next there is an election. We can write all our friends outside of L.A. County and demand the same of them. I have gotten strong results (an Agent, a Job) from acting in small theatres here. Yes, I could have used some money for doing it, but realistically, the money ain’t there. And no amount of proselyting will make it so.
Myron.. eloquence is thy name.. I review local theatre. The impact on me will be interesting. Not an Equity member, I have advocated for LA Equity members to bolt! Form their own version of the 99 seat plan and let the debbil take de hindmost. The Company Theatre thrived in the Seventies because professional actors were able to create new and exciting theatre and work TV and Film (not lesser arts to me!) to pay the rent on the store front while writing the grant applications and rehearsing the show, manning the box office, building the sets, doing publicity and cleaning the bathrooms. It’s ART and should be. Bolt the Greedy AEA and make ART! I so long for the days when the Art mattered. You can name a dozen small companies who swing for the fences and should not be so lumbered by the very union who is supposed to help them.
Bravo, Myron! Thank you for not being circumspect. And for recognizing that there really aren’t two sides here: morally, ethically, artistically. Just Equity’s bad behavior and the valiant attempts of L.A.’s union actors and other theater artists to deal with it. Hopefully, right equals might this time. And the Los Angeles intimate theater scene will prevail!
Regrettably you’re completely wrong with all of this Mr Meisel. The problems with the sustainability of LA theatre have to do with 1) very bad new plays – on a consistent basis- which don’t resonate, stand out or inspire. 2) 3rd tier quality administrative personnel who in themselves are uninspired and wholly conventional. 3) DEMOGRAPHICS – in a city which is overwhelmingly people of color the almost all white nature of the majority of LA small theatre companies is in of itself a recipe for the current failing status.
And alongside all this is the basic reality that if you are running a business where you are charging the public then, yes, you do have a responsibility to PAY them with some minimum standard of payment imposed. And yes, any theatre that can’t sustain themselves under this reality well deserves to go right under, as is properly happening. The problems with LA theatre, Mr Meisel, are much, much bigger than the law.
And I am a LA theatre person myself.
A possible motive for Equity is its’ being left in the cold, in their minds, by the recent amicable merger of SAG and AFTRA. In its’ rejected state, Equity may feel that bringing their members to heel in the cause of union wages and protections might make Equity more acceptable in an eventual extension of merger to include it, which of course misconstrues the purpose of 99 seat, which aside from its’ creative ingenuity and art for arts’ sake, is the nurturing and exposure of talent to the film-tv consortium, where the REAL money is, if, of course, you’re into that sort of thing.
I couldn’t agree more. Well, I could – but Myron seems to cover it all! This should be coupled with what Tim Robbins and LBPH’s Andrew Vonderschmitt had to say on the subject. AEA has slit their own throat! This 100+ year old ‘union’ thinks the only way to stop the rampant use of non-union talent in touring shows (that are ‘direct from Broadway’) is to put it on the customer at the box office in having them ‘ask if it’s Equity’. Lamest response to internal issues by a union EVER!