Actors’ Equity Ceases Development Contracts As Negotiations With Producers Stall

Actors’ Equity Association, the labor union representing more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers in live theatre, will cease issuing contracts for work on productions in development as negotiations with the Broadway League have stalled.

“We never wanted it to come to this,” said Equity Negotiating Team Chair Stephen Bogardus in a statement, “but the wage package put across the table by The Broadway League was just plain unacceptable. Our members cannot afford to work on this contract at the proposed compensation levels over the next five years.”

The union has been in negotiations with the League – the trade organization representing theater owners and producers – since January; the current contract expired February 11.

Equity’s announcement comes just a day after Brooke Shields, its newly elected president, made her public debut with an appearance on the Tony Awards to introduce the ceremony’s In Memoriam segment.

Deadline has reached out to the Broadway League and will update this post with its response.

Equity’s decision to cease issuing contracts marks the second such action since 2019, when the union went on strike for just more than a month. Following that strike, Equity members who participate in a show’s development gained a share in 1 percent of profits, and a salary increase, after the show goes on to full production and recoups its capitalization.

The development contracts cover workshops and readings, not current Broadway productions. But Equity points out in its announcement today that this past Broadway season included a significant number of shows that had “relied on the Development Agreement on their road to Broadway,” including Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Gatsby, Gutenberg! The Musical!, Harmony, The Heart of Rock and Roll, How to Dance in Ohio, Lempicka, The Notebook, Once Upon a One More Time, The Outsiders, Suffs, Water for Elephants and The Wiz. (None of those productions have recouped.)

The Development Agreement was created in 2019 as a restructuring of the previous Lab, Workshop and Stage Reading Agreements.

“Five years ago,” said Bogardus, “we ceased development work to get The Broadway League to acknowledge the work our members provide in the development of new work for the Broadway arena. Five years later, we are forced to do it again. We look forward to the day we can return to the bargaining table and negotiate a fair wage on this agreement that meets our stage managers’ and actors’ needs. We are ready whenever The League is.”