Actors’ Equity Association, which represents 51,000 theater performers and stage managers, lays out guidelines aimed to keep its members safe.
Theater in America should not resume until there is fast, reliable testing for the novel coronavirus and widespread contact tracing, the labor union representing actors and stage managers said Tuesday.
The union, Actors’ Equity Association, has barred its 51,000 members from in-person auditions, rehearsals and performances since April 24, and made clear at a news conference Tuesday that it is not ready — or even close to ready — to lift that restriction.
Asked about the handful of professional theaters that have announced intentions to try to hold performances this summer, including Barrington Stage Company in western Massachusetts and the Muny in St. Louis, the union’s executive director, Mary McColl, said, “we’re not at a point where we have approved any plan yet.” What that means, she added, is “that members should not go to work.”
The union has hired an epidemiologist, David Michaels, who led the Occupational Safety and Health Administration under President Obama, to help it develop a list of conditions under which its members will return to work. McColl acknowledged that “all of our members are unemployed,” but said theater needs to be safe before they can return.
