Equity rules on understudy notification?

One (or two) posters noted that there were no Playbill inserts or live announcement of Josh Groban's replacement on Wednesday evening's (?) performance. Instead, there was a posting in the lobby and emails sent 30 minutes before curtain.

I thought there were Equity rules requiring two of the following three notifications: lobby board, playbill inserts, or live announcement. Has there been a change including emails as an acceptable notification?

(Forgive the duplicate post from the "Natasha....previews" thread - but I figured my question would likely be buried there)

Some here may recall that the producer of said show has not exactly distinguished himself when it comes to observing the finer points of agreements to which he is subject. I would not think that an email would be deemed adequate notice, considering that there are quite a few people who acquired their tickets in such a way (at the box office, for instance) that the theatre would not have their email address.

I just went to the Equity website and answered my own question. Under the League contract rulebook Rule 11, Notification must be made either by announcement or insert, plus lobby board. No mention of email, text or other notification.

I think you hit the nail on the head, HH.

For the record:

These rules were put in place during Ginger Rogers' run in "Hello, Dolly!". She had an excellent attendance record but did come down with a throat infection and missed 3 performances. David Merrick waited until moments before the downbeat was given to announce: "At this performance the role of Mrs Levi will be played by Bibi Osterwald. Most people in the audience had no idea that Mrs Levi was actually Dolly and the picture on the Playbill featured Ginger Rogers wearing a red wig. They thought Osterwald was Rogers and it wasn't until well into the show that they discovered what had happened. Equity was notified and the rules were put in place.

At the same time Rogers ditched the wig and played the part as a blonde.

Updated On: 11/22/16 at 08:53 PM

trpguyy said: "Thats awfully shady, I have to assume it was an intentional move to avoid people wanting refunds/exchanges rather than an honest mistake. "

Ironically, any half competent producer will tell you that if you want to avoid having people line up for refunds and exchanges, the best way to do that is to make an announcement because most people are subject to the laws of momentum and inertia and once comfortably in their seats with the lights down are never going to get up and leave.

Glad to hear that the report(s) were, apparently one-offs.

Related question. What are the typical hours for ushers? How much time to they have to stuff inserts before the house opens?

PThespian said: "Ushers have to report one hour prior to curtain.

Theoretically that leaves 30 mins to do inserts.

However some House Managers prefer to open the house early so patrons don't have to wait outside in unfavorable weather conditions.


In addition the 306C contract affords Stage Management a grace period (7 mins I believe) in which to bring the inserts out. If they are not ready by then they are suppose to make a live announcement.

However that very rarely happens. A lot of times there are last minute call outs, inserts that need to be re-done, etc.


_____

There have been mistakes or last minute updates to the inserts. There is always an announcement stating the changes correctly.

At other times, such as during a planned vacation, the playbills are reprinted with the understudy listed as playing the part in question. This way there is no need for an insert and no one is calling attention to the change. I'm not sure what they do with the outside boards at that time

Updated On: 11/19/16 at 12:22 AM

"I can almost guarantee you that the problem wasn't an usher handing out the wrong programs.

I have worked the Imperial many times. The staff there is incredibly friendly and extremely competent.

Anything is possible I guess, but I'd be surprised if someone made a big mistake like that."



Here's the thing: we have only heard, and third hand at that this happened to one or two? people, if it happened at all. If it were only one or two, the inserts could have fallen out. Even if it was a lot more than that, even the best ushers can make mistakes and pick up the wrong stack.Yes, it's a big mistake, but they're human.



Actors Equity draws a hard line on the two out of three rule, and a Stage Manager would not allow this rule to be deliberately broken in order to keep people in the dark about Groban's absence - and the SM has control over the slips, the board, and the god mike that they make the announcement from.

I don't know anything about this producer, but he can't tell the staff what to do in this case, so he's got nothing to do with it..



So, IMO, it was a mistake, the slips fell out, or it didn't happen.

Updated On: 11/19/16 at 01:43 AM

There was no slip in the program for GREAT COMET on Thursday night announcing that Scott Stangland would be playing Pierre, not in the program I got, not in the program my husband got. There was a stuffer with the revised billing for Ars Nova, but NO SLIP AT ALL referring to a replacement Pierre. There was no announcement before the show either.

PThespian said: "The only show that reprints their programs to reflect planned absences is Phantom.





"

They also did it at Waitress in September when Stephanie Torns took over for Jessie Mueller.

I was there last night. My friend got to the theatre earlier than me, at around 7:15, and they were passing out papers saying that Josh was out and you could get your tickets refunded or switched to another date. I got there at around 7:30 there were slips in the playbills, Scott's name was on the understudy board, and they were still passing out those papers about refunds and stuff. They actually had three lines formed, two for the show and one for people looking to switch their tickets.

Updated On: 11/19/16 at 10:17 AM

These questions come up a lot. Here is a scan from my copy of the Equity Handbook. This is from the 2008 edition. They get updated every three years, so it is a bit out of date. However, big changes don't happen too often, and I believe this particular rule is still up to date.

Scan From Equity Handbook