Latest in Actors Equity

UPDATED with latest: Dancers at a topless bar in North Hollywood have received approval from the National Labor Relations Board for a union recognition election, a move officials said could make them the only strippers in the United States represented by a union, according to the decision obtained today. The…

Actors' Equity says it will place Broadway producer Garth Drabinsky on its "Do Not Work" list just as soon as his financially troubled musical Paradise Square ends its run with a matinee on Sunday at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Once he’s on the list, Equity members won’t be allowed to work on Drabinsky’s stage…

Actors' Equity is blasting an audience member who secretly videotaped Jesse Williams’ nude scene while performing in Take Me Out at the Second Stage Theater in NYC and then released it on Twitter. Equity called it an act of “sexual harassment and an appalling breach of consent.” The NYC theater, which collects…

SAG-AFTRA and the Actors’ Equity Association have agreed to a six-month extension of an agreement they reached last year that settled a bitter jurisdictional dispute over the taping or streaming of live theater during the Covid-19 pandemic. The agreement was originally set to expire at the end of the year, but the…

Actors' Equity and the Off-Broadway League have reached an agreement for a new three-year contract that includes significant pay raises; Covid protocols; new provisions that strengthen diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; and additional protections that address issues of harassment, bullying and…

Actors' Equity says that fully vaccinated theater companies now can dispense with masking and Covid-19 testing mandates. The live-theater union's newly updated protocols will remain in effect through the end of September. "The health and safety of our members comes first," said Equity president Kate Shindle. "We are…

Mary McColl, the current executive director of Actors’ Equity Association, has announced that she will not seek a new contract when her current agreement expires in January 2022. McColl made the announcement to staff and officers of the union today. "When I took this job in 2011, I was the first woman to be hired as…

Leaders of SAG-AFTRA, Actors' Equity Association and American Federation of Musicians Local 802 are condemning harassment, bullying and toxic environments and pledging “to hold accountable those who violate human and legal norms of fair, respectful and dignified conduct in the workplace.” Though the joint statement…

In the hardest year, Hollywood's unions had their finest hour. Together and separately, they navigated those first uncertain days of the entertainment industry shutdown a year ago this week and came together with the major companies to develop protocols to get their members back to work as safely as possible. Their…

Leaders of the Hollywood's unions today outlined their legislative agenda to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the arts, entertainment and media industries, including a call on Congress to pass a flurry of legislation to increase federal arts funding; establish diversity objectives for grant recipients; to…

Actors' Equity has condemned President Donald Trump's "outrageous" proposal to freeze $110 million in the 2021 budget for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The proposed freeze is part of the $27.4 billion in government programs Trump is trying to stall in his last days…

UPDATED with more statements: A growing chorus of entertainment industry union leaders is condemning Wednesday's attack on the Capitol building by supporters of President Donald Trump – and the politicians who incited the violence. "It took three years, 50 weeks and four dead at the Capitol for far too few Republicans…