Actors’ union, theater producers avert strike with tentative contract
NEW YORK — The show will go on.
The actors’ union and Broadway theater producers reached a tentative agreement for a new contract Wednesday, averting the possibility of a strike.
The new contract, which covers 39 months and expires in September 2011, would increase the compensation package for actors — including health benefits and pensions — by 11v percent.
Actors’ Equity Association and the Broadway League, which represents both producers and theater owners, had been negotiating past the midnight Sunday deadline, when the last contract expired. Negotiations started in April.
The contract faces a review by the union’s governing body. If it is approved, it will be sent to Equity members for a vote.
The two sides declined to release many specifics on the contract, to which Disney Theatrical Productions is also a partner, because it still needs to be ratified. Disney is not a member of the Broadway League. But they did say the agreement would allow greater flexibility in marketing and promotions, giving producers increased leeway to use new technologies to reach audiences.
It also included a new arrangement for show tours. An experimental touring program started after the last contract talks in 2004. It allowed for different levels of pay for different kinds of tours. Details of the new arrangement were not divulged.
