March on Broadway Planned for April 22

A March on Broadway has been planned by Instagram users Nattalyee Randall (@50milerunforjusticeprotest) and Courtney Daniels (@randomblackgirllll) on Thursday, April 22 at 1pm ET.

The march plans to start at Columbus Circle and will make four more stops: The Winter Garden Theatre where The Music Man is set to open, the office building of Actor's Equity Association, the office building of Scott Rudin, and Union Square.

This march comes in response not only to stories of workplace abuse from producer Scott Rudin as reported in The Hollywood Reporter, but also the issue of transparency from the Actor's Equity Association and the overall lack of representation for the BIPOC, AAPI, Trans, Non-Binary, and gender-nonconforming communities that have come to light during the shutdown.

Eden Espinosa, Hamilton's Ryan Vasquez, James Pierce III, Brandon Michael Nase, Jaime Cepero, Dear Evan Hansen's Diamond Essence White, Sis, Paige Levy, Mean Girls' Ashley De La Rosa, and the organization Everybody Black are set to serve as guest speakers at the march.

Industry members continue to share issues of transparency with Actor's Equity, most recently Espinosa, who took to Instagram to call out the association when they asked for dues.

"[We] are tired and sick of being gaslit. I will pay my dues when you have a plan of action and actually prove that you are taking care of your members," shared Espinosa in the post.

Since the original post about the march, both Nattalyee and Courtney have shared demands on their social pages, including the following:

1. Scott Rudin to be removed from the Broadway League - If he is not removed from the Broadway League, we want restoration. We want Scott to publicly choose 20 BIPOC run theatres and donate a LARGE SUM of money to them.

2. A full list of organizations that AEA is working with to help Black, Indigenous, and POC feel safer.

3. A full report of how the 2020 Equity dues were spent and what percentage is being spent to help conversations around diversity.

4. Achieve greater inclusion for trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming artists.

5. We want visibility on how the national council votes for policies. We also want efforts to improve diversity within the council.

6. We want to achieve greater inclusion for artists with visible and nonvisible differing abilities.

"It doesn't matter if you are union or non union. It doesn't matter if you've been on Broadway or not. It doesn't matter if you've already paid your dues or not. We gotta take it to the streets now!" the organizers shared. "We do not want this to be actors vs the union, we DO want the union to do its job and keep us safe."

See the latest post below for more info.

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