Why can non-eq tours play in houses/employ road cr that have IATSE members?

Yeah I have wondered the same thing. I have done as much research and reading as I can to just learn about the topic and the way it works in NYC. Most recently, I’ve been reading “The Business of Broadway” by Mitch Weiss and Perri Gaffney which goes into great detail talking about the way AEA, the various branches of IATSE, SDC, ATPAM, and etc. work with one another in the commercial theatre industry and it’s absolutely fascinating and I definitely recommend grabbing it on Amazon if you’re interested in learning about producing and union work for the NYC scene. That being said, I am definitely wanting to learn more about the way that sort of stuff carries over across the country.

Currently I’m interning at a non-Broadway Across America roadhouse in Texas that occasionally hosts non-equity tours, or other stuff like Blue Man Group & The Illusionists, and once in a blue moon, Equity productions that aren’t picked up by our standard BAA roadhouse. Our production staff is all IATSE, but I’m not really sure what the relationship is like between the unionized residential staff we have and other non-union crew/cast members that come into our venue, or how that works. (I work in our Administrative Departments, I am not going into technical
production- moreso Marketing, Development and Programing and stuff like that.) I can and probably will inquire about it just for the sake of learning but if anyone has insight into how this stuff works I would really love to hear about it.

Updated On: 1/26/20 at 12:27 AM

JohnyBroadway said: "Non AEA does not mean non-union. Most Non AEA tours/productions are still under other union contracts. It depends on the scope of the production and venue."

Fair enough. So generally speaking, are non-AEA tours usually still supported by other unions ala IATSE? Stuff like the current tours of Finding Neverland, An American in Paris, The Spongebob Tour, or even something like The Office: A Musical Comedy tour, just for example?

Again, if anyone can recommend any good resources (Books, Articles, or organizations akin to the Commercial Theatre Institute) just for learning about the way tours work and employ their workforce compared to the Broadway stage, I would really appreciate it!

Updated On: 1/26/20 at 01:42 AM

copathetiic said: "DiscoCrows said: "JohnyBroadway said: "Fair enough. So generally speaking, are non-AEA tours usually still supported by other unions ala IATSE? Stuff like the current tours ofFinding Neverland, An American in Paris, The Spongebob Tour,or even something likeThe Office: A Musical Comedytour, just for example?

I worked an IATSE call on The Office, but that might just be because it was playing a union house. I’m also fairly certainthat Spongebob is IATSE because it teched at the theatre I work at and multiple people who were employed by the show (non local members) were also working on Frozen, because they worked on both shows on Broadway.


I believe, for the most part, bigger non-eq shows are still IATSE"

Gotcha, makes perfect sense. Thanks a bunch!