AEA & Plaintiffs in Asner vs. Actors' Equity Association Release New Joint Update

As reported by BroadwayWorld, members of the Los Angeles theatrical community filed a lawsuit against Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers, earlier this year, challenging the Union's decision to eliminate its 25-year-old waiver of jurisdiction over small 99-seat theaters, a program popularly known as Equity Waiver.

Today, Actors' Equity Association and the plaintiffs in the Asner vs. Actors' Equity litigation have jointly announced today that they have agreed to continue conversations for an undetermined amount of time to attempt to resolve the issues that prompted the pending lawsuit.

The parties expressed a mutual desire to conduct ongoing discussions in a confidential manner, and both sides have agreed to a media blackout during this time. The parties will enlist the assistance of a neutral facilitator.

The plaintiffs will not serve the complaint in the lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California during the discussions. The plaintiffs have withdrawn with prejudice any claims or causes of action against Mary McColl, Executive Director of Actors' Equity Association.

The June 1, 2016 starting date for implementation of the Los Angeles 99?Seat Theatre Agreement will be extended by the amount of time both sides continue fruitful dialogue to resolve the outstanding issues. (For example, if two months pass from the commencement of discussions until their termination, the June 1 start date would be rolled back to August 1, absent some other announcement by the parties.)

The lawsuit was filed October 19th in the Los Angeles federal court. The plaintiffs are Los Angeles-based members of Equity, together with other theatrical artists and theater operators who had entered into a litigation Settlement Agreement with the Union in 1989 that established a system for regulating future changes to the Equity Waiver program.

The lawsuit alleges that the stage actors' union violated this Settlement Agreement by improperly interfering with the democratic and due process procedures established in the Agreement to prevent any unilateral Union decision to eliminate the world of intimate theater. The lawsuit complains that Equity's new rules, including a prohibition on volunteer acting at small theaters and a new wage compensation obligation on these theaters, will force theaters to close, reduce their production runs, or to hire non-union volunteer actors in place of Union actors.

Plaintiffs are represented by the Law Offices of Steven J. Kaplan and Martha Doty of Alston & Bird.

To read the full complaint, click here.