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reprinted from
January 16, 2002
By ROBERT
HOFLER
Salaries on select Broadway shows may go up a
notch if one union gets its way.
On Jan. 22, Actors' Equity begins negotiations for a new LORT (League
of Resident Theaters) contract; the old one expires in March. LORT covers
not-for-profit theaters. Commercial Broadway productions use the
Production Contract, which offers a minimum salary of $1,252 as opposed to
LORT's $728.
When not-for-profit theaters such as Lincoln Center and the Roundabout
produce on Broadway, they currently use the LORT contract, with its lower
salary rates.
"Equity is seeking to prohibit the use of the contract by these
companies when they mount productions away from their home theaters," said
Alan Eisenberg, the union's executive director and chief negotiator. "When
productions like 'Follies,' 'Thou Shalt Not' and 'The Invention of Love'
are (a) presented in Production Contract houses, (b) Tony-eligible and (c)
charging Broadway ticket prices, the actors and stage managers must be
compensated at Broadway rates."
Eisenberg said the union was already in discussions with the
Roundabout, which produced "Follies," and Lincoln Center Theater, which
produced "Invention of Love" and "Thou Shalt Not." The two not-for-profit
orgs staged those three shows in commercial Broadway houses and not at
their home base of operations -- the American Airlines Theater for the
Roundabout and the Vivian Beaumont Theater for Lincoln Center.
Eisenberg added, "New rates for productions at the American Airlines
and Vivian Beaumont theaters will also be discussed."
Lincoln Center will stage "Mornings at Seven" this spring at the Lyceum
Theater.
The Vivian Beaumont currently houses LCT's long-running musical
"Contact," which in its extended engagement pays Production Contract
scale. Likewise, actors in the Roundabout's production of "Cabaret" at
Studio 54 receive full Broadway rates.
Equity recently turned down Manhattan Theater Club's request to use the
LORT contract when it moves into the renovated Biltmore Theater, a
Broadway-size house, in 2003. (MTC is in negotiations with the stagehands'
Local One regarding the Biltmore.) The thesp union also has asked the
Center Theater Group, a LORT "A" company, to use the Production Contract
when it produces at the 2,000-seat Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles.
The various theater companies chose not to comment on the negotiations
while in progress. |
