Figures released last month by Actors Equity Association (Equity) confirm that Chicago once again fueled Equity’s 13-state Central Region to a record-setting year, as measured by total work weeks booked under various Equity contracts.
For the 2003-2004 season (July 1-June 30), the Central Region booked 45,026 work weeks, up nearly 6% over 2002-2003. The Central Region supplied 15.6% of all Equity work weeks nationally, even though only 8.6% of all Equity members live in the region.
CHICAGO’S BOOMING THEATRE INDUSTRY has an annual economic impact now in excess of $350 million, providing over 6,400 annual jobs and wooing 600,000 overnight tourists to performing arts events each year, according to the League of Chicago Theatres. The clearest barometer of local theatre health is the Chicago Area Theatre (CAT) agreement, the most frequently-used local Equity contract. Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company and the Tony Award winning Steppenwolf and Victory Gardens theatres are among several dozen metro area CAT houses. For 2003-2004, Equity members booked an all-time high of 7,903 work weeks under the CAT pact, up nearly 5% over the previous year.
Initiated in the early 1980s, the CAT agreement has seven tiers with minimum weekly salaries defined by the seating capacity of a theatre and the number of weekly performances. At the lowest end, weekly pay is about $140 for no more than four performances in a house of 99 seats or less. At the highest tier, say Steppenwolf or Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, weekly pay for an actor tops $600 for up to eight shows a week. The CAT contract is so flexible that it’s served as a model for similar regional Equity agreements across the country.
Also up slightly was the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) agreement, under which the Court, Goodman and Northlight theatres operate locally. LORT work weeks for 2003-2004 were 9,057, up from 8,907 the year before.
Other contracts with local impact include Special Agreement (The Second City and the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire), up a fraction at 3,790 weeks; Theatre for Young Audiences, up a fraction to 2,441 weeks; and Dinner Theatre, down just over 5% to 4,824 work weeks (as Marriott switched from Dinner Theatre to Special Agreement in mid-season).
The once-important Business Theatre contract?what used to be called industrial shows?is virtually dead, according to Central Region executive director Kathryn Lamkey, replaced by new imaging technologies that can move, sing and dance almost as well as real people.
The once-important Business Theatre contract?a.ka. industrial shows?is virtually dead. Lamkey believes that the current statistical year, 2004-2005, will be another strong one when all the work weeks are toted up next summer. She notes that several new venues will come under Equity contracts such as the award-winning Porchlight Music Theatre Chicago and the soon-to-open Drury Lane Watertower Place Theatre of nonagenarian producer Anthony DeSantis.
Also, in the fall Victory Gardens will open its new two-theatre complex in the old Biograph movie house while retaining ownership of its existing three-theatre venue, paving the way for additional Equity shows.
The spring and summer will provide some challenges, however, as several key contracts come up for renegotiation, among them the LORT agreement (February), the Second City Special Agreement (March), the Marriott and Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace Special Agreements (May) and the all-important CAT contract (July).
Lamkey believes that salaries will not be the primary issue in any of the upcoming talks. “The major issue is the cost of the health plan. This will be the major issue in all these negotiations,” she says. Right now, the Equity health care plan is funded 100% by the producers, with no contributions from actors or stage managers (also represented by Equity).
Health plans, not salaries, will be the major issue in upcoming negotiations. With the average cost of the health plan nearly $148 per actor per week (although richer contracts contribute more and poorer contracts contribute less than this median amount), the reality is distressing for both producers and the union. A request?or demand?by producers that union members partially fund health care probably is inevitable. The union’s response could determine the future health of Chicago’s theatre industry.
