Producers May Legally Challenge Theater Plan

A group of 20 theater producers is considering challenging the legality of a new Actors’ 99-Seat Theater Plan adopted by the membership of Actors Equity Assn. this week.

In a meeting Thursday, the producers, all members of the Equity Waiver Theatre Operators Committee, also decided that they would deal with the union only as a unit. They said they plan to invite actors opposed to the new plan to form their own association.

The new actors’ plan is a complex restructuring of the 16-year-old Equity Waiver Plan in which the actors union waives certain rules in theaters with fewer than 100 seats.

“The one option we repudiate is working with this (new) plan,” said the Odyssey Theatre’s Ron Sossi after the meeting.

“Equity doesn’t run our theaters,” he continued. “We do. We’re tired of being treated as if we’re operating by permission of Equity. We want to evolve a plan for the growth of theater in this town. We’ll look into adding more than 99 seats and we’re even looking into taking over some mid-size houses. We tried to be cooperative (with Equity), but now we’re mad.”

Equity Western Regional Director Edward Weston said he had “no comment” on the matter.

The Waiver Theater Operators’ Committee plans to meet Monday at 1 p.m. at the Gene Dynarski Theatre. The group has also scheduled an open informational meeting for Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Las Palmas Theatre to which they said they have invited actors interested in working with them.