EQUITY, THEATER LEAGUE ‘FAR APART’ ON NEW PACT

If Actors Equity and the League of Resident Theatres can’t come to an agreement on a new contract by Sept. 1, 77 regional theaters nationwide could be dark. Affected would be theaters from the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., to the Mark Taper Forum, according to Equity, which represents 36,000 actors, dancers and singers in the United States.

“Negotiations between Actors Equity and the League of Resident Theatres have thus far failed to produce meaningful results,” Alan Eisenberg, the union’s chief negotiator, told members in a newsletter.

“The sides are very far apart,” Edward Weston, Equity’s West Coast representative, told The Times Wednesday. “(The league) is refusing to face the issues, primarily about money. They get an enormous amount of revenue from federal, state and local governments, which they refuse to acknowledge as income. They only acknowledge box-office receipts. They can spend millions for staffs and buildings and dramaturges, but the actor is still on a basic $300-a-week scale.

“They have misguided priorities,” he added. “Their priorities aren’t based on the actor, who everyone comes to see, and whom they demean.”

The league is approaching the issue with caution. “This isn’t something that should be negotiated in the press,” said Stephen Albert, the CTG/Mark Taper Forum’s general manager and league representative for larger theaters.

“This contract is over 125 pages long. It’s been extended for 14 months because agreement wasn’t reached when it expired last year. We feel we’ve made substantial progress on it,” Albert said. “In any labor negotiations, there are always five or six issues to be resolved at the last moment. Whenever you get to contract negotiations every three years, there’s always built-in drama and tension.

“It’s not our intention to plan for a work stoppage,” Albert added. “The theater and the arts in America are not in the healthiest state.”

Issues under consideration when Equity and the League meet Tuesday include theater categories, which are determined by seating capacity and in turn determine salaries, and out-of-town housing for actors (who now reportedly pay up to 20% of their salaries for accommodations). Equity also wants theater owners to hire one minority actor or stage manager for every production and wants assistant stage managers to be members of the union.

The issue of salaries did not come up in an earlier discussion in June, but the union reportedly seeks a 15% increase for actors and stage managers who work in larger theaters, and 10% for those in smaller theaters.

The Variety Arts Center will host the 2nd annual Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event on Oct. 7 to benefit the AIDS Project/Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization that provides support services for AIDS victims as well as educational programs for the community. The AIDS Project was also beneficiary of a similar program last year.

The music of Stephen Sondheim will be featured, performed by George Chakiris, Jerry Clark, Carole Cook, Penny Fuller, Laurence Guittard, Bill Hutton, Marsha Kramer, Lu Leonard, Donna McKechnie, Linda Michele and Pamela Myers, among others. The event is chaired by Doris Roberts and produced by Mariko C. Ballentine, Michael Kearns, Susan Obrow, James Carroll Picket and David Galigan, who directs. Local legit producers who participate are being asked to donate $1 for each seat in their respective theaters.

Seating is reserved and tickets ($15.50) are available through Ticket Express, (213) 871-3771.

One of America’s pioneer regional theaters, the Guthrie of Minneapolis, makes its West Coast debut at UC Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall on Nov. 16 and 17 with its staging of Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations.” Playwright Barbara Field, the Guthrie’s former literary manager, adapted the novel for the stage. Stephen Kanee directs, Hiram Titus has composed the score and Jack Barkla is set designer. Tickets, from $8 to $12, can be reserved through UCSB’s Arts and Leisure ticket office, (805) 961-3535.

“Angel’s Flight,” a new collaborative series between the Museum of Contemporary Art and Pipeline, gets under way Sept. 6 with a performance piece by Hirokazu Kosaka, called “Kuzu No Ha.” Other artists to be featured in the series, which runs through Oct. 27, include Jan Munroe, Lewis MacAdams, Tina Preston, Tim Robbins, Kedric Robin Wolfe, Gilberte Meunier and the incomparable puppeteer Bruce D. Schwartz, who will unveil a new work in collaboration with Donald Krieger. All performances will be at Pipeline’s 870-seat Wallenboyd Theater.

GERONTOLOGICAL FEAT OF ALL TIME: The press release for the M&M; production of “Antigone,” Aug. 29 at the Pilot, reads: “This ‘Antigone’ utilizes an entirely new theatrical approach; is a totally new concept; has music by Paul McCartney, Donald Byrd and others; and dance staged by Jacquie and Bill Langdrum. . . . Even though ‘Antigone’ was originally staged in 411 BC, it is as timely and current as today’s headlines. Most of all, under the direction of Stephen Book, this production of ‘Antigone’ is full of surprises, yet remains Anouilh’s ‘Antigone.’ ”

LATE CUES: Madeline Puzo has been appointed associate producer of the Mark Taper Forum. Joining the Taper staff in 1970, she went on to become producer at Taper, Too, where the recent award-winning “In the Belly of the Beast” was restaged by Robert Woodruff. . . . John Steppling’s “The Shaper” (presented by L.A. Theatre Works), Marisha Chamberlain’s “Scheherazade” (presented by the Cricket Theatre of Minneapolis) and Barbara Lebow’s “A Shayna Maidel” (Academy Theater of Atlanta) will be excerpted in “The Burns Mantle Theater Yearbook: The Best Plays of 1984-85,” edited by Otis Guernsey Jr.