Come January, Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) Central Regional office (CRO) will have a familiar face as its new head honcho.
Christine Provost, who has been at the CRO for 15 years, most recently as senior business representative, takes over from outgoing CRO director/assistant executive director Kathryn V. Lamkey, who retires Dec. 29 after 25 years with the union.
Though Equity’s CRO moved to its own spiffy building at 557 W. Randolph St. a year ago, “The Central Region is not just about Chicago. We cover 12 states and all of them are important,” Provost points out.
According to Equity spokesperson Maria Somma, in the 2009-10 season (the one for which the most recent figures were available), the Central Region logged 44,410 work weeks and “in any given week, there were at least 135 companies” in production.
Provost also notes that “One of the changes we’ve seen in respect to Chicago is, first of all, when producers are looking for what’s hot and up-and-coming, they look more and more to Chicago.”
Tier N aids small theatres transition to Equity status
Under Lamkey’s leadership, the Chicago Area Theater (CAT) contract introduced wage level, Tier N. This agreement, according to Provost, has made the transition from non-Equity to Equity easier for smaller companies – arguably the lifeblood of Chicago’s vibrant theater community.
Provost points to House Theatre of Chicago, which just started operating under a Tier N contract this week, as one example of its effectiveness.
“The contract with Tier N is a wonderful vehicle for a theatre to take the step into Equity waters over a three-to-five year process,” says Provost.
Under the Tier N terms, a company hires one Equity actor per production the first year, one actor plus health benefits the second year, and an actor and a stage manager, both with health benefits, the third year. (The plan also allows for a break between years one and two, according to Provost.)
Provost also points to the Small Professional Theater contract as one that has helped smaller companies outside of Chicago make the transition from non-Equity to Equity.
“There are theaters that are utilizing this new agreement to ride the economic times and still be part of the Equity community,” she says.
Provost is CEILC secretary/treasurer
Provost earned her bachelor’s at the University of Pennsylvania and her law degree from Northwestern, and was a litigation attorney with a Chicago firm before joining Equity in 1996.
She currently serves as the secretary/treasurer of the Chicago Entertainment Industry Labor Council (CEILC), whose membership includes IATSE Local 2 Stagehands and many other unions affiliated with the entertainment industry.
“We share in each other’s successes,” she says. “When somebody has a good negotiation, it keeps us all up to date.”
Provost anticipates that she and the CRO business representatives will continue to travel a good deal to stay on top of the challenges facing AEA membership in the widespread Central Region.
“While many of the AEA member theaters’ concerns and struggles are the same, every place has its own uniqueness, and so to serve them, you have to understand the cities and towns in which they operate. These things don’t happen in a vacuum,” she says.
And with Equity getting set to celebrate its 100th birthday in 2013, it’s a safe bet that Provost will have high visibility in her new post.
Kerry Reid is a freelance theater critic and arts journalist. Her work appears regularly in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Reader. Please send news items to kerryreid@comcast.net.
