Is there a directory or database I can use to find out if a theatre
hires only actors belonging to Actors' Equity Association; e.g. is a
given theatre an Equity house?

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Request for Question Clarification by rebeccam-ga on 29 Apr 2004 10:13 PDT

bard68ph,

Are there any limits to the kinds of Equity houses you're looking for?
As you may know, there are various kinds of contracts Equity might use
with a given theater. (There are several League of Resident Theaters,
or 'LORT', designations which are often used for professional regional
theaters, there are contracts for children's theater, 99-seat 'Waiver'
theater, which allows Equity members to perform in small houses with
restricted budgets, etc.)

Do you want to be able to find out which Equity contract, if any, a
given theater is working under?

Thanks for the clarification!

rebeccam-ga

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Clarification of Question by bard68ph-ga on 29 Apr 2004 15:17 PDT

To rebeccacam: yes, I would like to know which Equity contract a
theatre uses. That would be very helpful. I do have the TCG book which
lists theatres belonging to TCG and then shows if they are Equity
houses but I think there are probably some theatres which use Equity
contracts but do not belong to TCG. In particular I think dinner
theatres and stock theatres may fall in this category. I look forward
to your research. Thank you.

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Request for Question Clarification by rebeccam-ga on 29 Apr 2004 18:58 PDT

bard68pg,

I've sent Equity an email asking whether they have this kind of
information available in a cohesive way, in any format... Best to go
right to the source, I figure. I will let you know what I hear back,
and see what I can dig up elsewhere.

(I bet, and this is just a hunch occurring to me, that if you have the
name of a specific theater and want to check on its Equity status,
they could do that over the phone, much as the Screen Actors Guild
used to do with SAG Franchised Agents.)

Best,
Rebeccam-ga

Greetings Bard68ph:

An "Equity house" is one that meets the union requirements and
subsequently signs an exclusive contract with Equity, legally
declaring that the theater will not employ non-union actors and/or
stage managers.

"Equity theater simply means?that the people who are putting on
performances are holding union cards..." says Brad Armstrong,
president and CEO of the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation which is
behind the proposed downtown Performing Arts Complex...To achieve
Equity status, theaters must meet certain criteria in ticket sales,
audience size, and in the number and types of plays the theater puts
on each year."
http://www.richmond.com/printer.cfm?article=2870698

You may be able to directly contact the Actor's Equity Association
through their website at http://www.actorsequity.org/home.html or by
mail or phone
165 West 46th Street, 15th Floor
New York, New York 10036
(212) 869-8530  telephone
(212) 719-9815  fax
to see if they have a listing available to non-members.  Much of their
website is available only to members.

You could possibly compile your own list from the search results of
"an Equity theater" at
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22an+Equity+theater%22

Good luck, and I wish I could have found the exact database you are seeking.

Best regards,
journalist-ga

SEARCH STRATEGY:

"Actor's Equity Association"
"professional theater" listing
"professional theater" database
"professional theater" directory
what is an "equity theater"
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"equity theater" union listing OR certification
"Equity house" members theaters
"an Equity theater"