What Shows Are Going Non-Equity for 11/12? — Page 5

I'm beginning to get the feeling, julesboogie (and please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm greatly enjoying the fact that this thread has actually stimulated discussion and not devolved into pointless name calling) that you are advocating a full Production stance or nothing approach, similar to the "I'm taking my ball and going home" scenario. The problem being, of course, that Equity does not actually own the ball. We can go home if we don't like the way things are going, but the producers still have the show. If we won't play with them they can simply turn around and sell that ball to the highest bidder, who will then bring in a whole new group of players for way, WAY cheaper.

And, to be honest, if I can walk away from a TYA tour having been able to put some money away, and not having eaten McDonald's every day, then it is certainly possible for somebody to do it on a SETA or Tiered tour. Will everybody be able to do that? Of course not, but that can be said about a large number of the Equity contracts out there.

As one of the reps said at the meeting about these contracts last fall (and I'm paraphrasing) there have always been members who will choose not to take certain contracts due to what they feel are their financial minimums, everything from SPT to TYA to some of the lower LORT levels. If the SETA or Tiered contracts have to be considered as such by those members it's too bad, but we can't deny others who feel they can afford to do these contracts the chance to work.

The thing is though there is not really room for another level between the Tiers and SETA. Tier D minimum is $938, SETA Category 1 minimum begins at $834. I don't see where there's any room for an additional contract between the two.

SETA was a branch off from the Tiers. Initially there were 6 tiers, but no producer was actually using the E, F, or G levels. Equity found that by the time a show reached a point where it qualified to use those levels they producers were instead choosing to sell the show off to the Non-Equity companies.

And I also didn't state there are a lot. There are some. There are plenty of other AEA members who are perfectly happy to keep working at a salary that matches what they would be making at the LORT B+, higher level Off-Broadway, higher level COST, and more than what they would be making at low level LORT, low level Off-Broadway, TYA, URTA, Guest Artist, SPT or many, many others (not to mention the dreaded Showcase).

I LOVE THIS Thread. I just read the entire thing and I love what we are talking about. It's sad I know but thats the economy.

I'm a new comer to the business(going to university for it BFA MT) and I'm really bad in math so it doesn't help. I don't really understand where these contracts came from but they do make a lot of sense.

I work at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the performing Arts in Miami and I can tell you big time that Touring shows hurt the Presenter a lot more than the producers. (actors are employees so I'm not counting them). Once the tour reaches the city, the presenter pays the production manager. So the producer must get the money from the presenter no matter if the show is a flop. The presenter is buying the show for whatever time and must pay for it. Tours are easier to re-coup than Broadway for just that case. In the other hand presenters are usually the ones that get hurt with the debt of a show(on tour). Lately with these productions contracts, the actors and producers are not getting profit but will get their production value.

Living in a city that doesn't go to the theater, Marketing budgets are huge and thats where a lot of a presenters money goes to anyways. Our Season next year is THE ADDAMS FAMILY( we are one of the producers for the show), NETworks presents SHREK THE MUSICAL, MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, COME FLY AWAY, and LION KING.

To be honest the only shows I see make their money back in Miami is LION KING. Miami was barley able to sell out one show of JERSEY BOYS that just came down for a 3 week engagement. LION KING and JERSEY BOYS were the big shows we were and are hoping to make a profit with. All of our shows except for the 1 big Blockbuster that comes every year, is a 1 week engament. It has become too expensive for Miami to have anything longer than 1 week if it's not WICKED ect. It costs about $600,000 every week for every show that drops down. So seeing anything longer than a week here is hard.
WICKED has come twice already to Miami alone, 2 more times to Fort Lauderdale, and 1 time to West Palm Beach. WICKED has been in South Florida 5 times within the last five years. The Arsht Center is only going into their 6th season and has had WICKED twice already to cover their butts. NON-EQ has been our saviors on expenses and I think their is a bigger market now on cheaper shows than ever.


So Again can we make a List of all EQ and NON-EQ shows for the 2011/2012 season. Just curious to know whats coming out next year.

Updated On: 4/27/11 at 07:50 PM

Put SHREK and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN on the NON-equity list. NETworks has an audition notice up for them - in fact the auditions were last week.