Equity Plan’s Legal Status Unchanged; Charney to Step Away From Actors’ Alley

When U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter refused Tuesday to issue a restraining order blocking implementation of Actors’ Equity’s Actors’ 99-Seat Theatre Plan, it was, according to the lawyers on both sides, a normal hiccup in the realm of jurisprudence: There wasn’t much reason to grant one.

While Equity officials said they were “pleased” that the restraining order was denied, Martha Hammer, an attorney for the plaintiffs, claimed the denial was no surprise.

“We thought it was important to try,” she said, “because we do think the union is jumping the gun on implementation (of the new plan, due Oct. 3). Judge Hatter did say he felt there were serious issues raised, but saw no (imminent threat of) irreparable harm. He set a date for a hearing next Thursday, which is well before the Oct. 3 date.”

At issue was less the plan itself (a modified Waiver requiring, among other things, payment for actors) than the manner in which it was submitted to a vote in March.

The 15 actors and actor-producers suing Equity claim the union ignored membership resolutions and “conducted a surprise referendum” to get the plan approved.

Equity officials insist they abided by the union’s constitution and that the referendum was upheld by union council in New York.

So the status to date remains more or less quo.

“We would expect that the judge will deny the injunction,” said Leo Geffner, Equity’s attorney, “or at least we hope that he will. We raised an issue that was not directly dealt with at the hearing (Tuesday) but should be a part of the proceedings on the 22nd, and that’s the fact that a number of these plaintiffs are producers and therefore should be barred from this lawsuit.

“The law does not allow an employer who has an interest in the litigation to finance, encourage or participate in a lawsuit.”

But are these actor- producers employers when union officials maintain that the plan is not a contract and payment for actors is not a wage but a “reimbursement”?

“The union knows very well that to call this an employer-employee relationship is simply untrue,” said Jerome Birn, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “Take the membership companies. The members are paying money to collectively have a theater, and to call the people who’ve organized that an employer is very unfair. I think it’s only further evidence of bad faith.”

The question: whether bad faith is illegal or merely immoral. Affidavits are expected from all parties at next Thursday’s hearing.

END OF AN ERA: Jordan Charney, artistic director of Actors’ Alley, will step down in February after five years. The reason? A kind of happy battle fatigue.

“The theater has grown so much,” Charney said, “that I felt it was time for a different kind of leader to come in and see if we can push it forward (toward becoming a contract house). I’ve had a great time. The company’s been very supportive and co-operative.”

Charney, who was an active member of Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theatre in New York during the ‘60s (and one of the producers of “Viet Rock”), says he hopes to stay with the group but is more interested now “in forming an acting unit designed for the serious actor who wants to explore the impulsive side of acting.”

His final production at the Alley will be a staging of “Richard III” “utilizing some of those techniques we learned under Joe (Chaikin).”

As for the new Actors’ 99-Seat Theatre Plan that goes into effect next month, Charney feels it won’t materially affect Actors’ Alley because the group is a membership organization.

“I don’t understand it,” he said. “I suppose that as a labor union, which has nothing to do with artistic creation, Equity feels it must have some control over its members. But all it means for us is that our members will have to pay more into the company in order to be able to pay it out again.”

Hmmm.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GENE: Oct. 16 marks Eugene O’Neill’s 100th birthday and everything but everything’s coming up parties.

In New York, the Theater Committee for Eugene O’Neill is throwing something it calls a “Gala Centennial Tribute to the Genius of Eugene O’Neill” at Circle in the Square. It may sound redundant, but it should be fun.

On this coast, San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre in co-operation with the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House, will be gearing up the Geary Theatre stage to present scenes from West Coast O’Neill productions of the 1987-88 season. Joy Carlin, ACT associate artistic director, is putting it all together.

Among the presentations will be scenes from ACT’s upcoming production of the rarely seen “Marco Millions,” the Oregon Shakespearean Festival’s “The Iceman Cometh,” the Berkeley Rep’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and “Ah, Wilderness!,” the Magic Theatre’s “A Moon for the Misbegotten” and a seafaring one-act from the Glencairn series presented by Just So Productions.

A reception at the theater will follow the performances with actors and directors present. Tickets for the affair: $40. Curtain time is 3 p.m. For more information, call (415) 837-0986 or 935-4565.

MORE TAO HOUSE: Three visitors from China--actor Sun Daolin, costume designer Jovita Chow and art director Chen Shao Ze--will be special guests Oct. 2 at Tao House (O’Neill’s former Danville, Calif., residence near San Francisco) at a private reception hosted by the board of directors of the O’Neill Foundation, Tao House.

If plans now under way succeed, the Chinese visitors may witness one of our more American rituals: the burial of a time capsule on the Tao House grounds to be opened in the bi centennial year of O’Neill’s birth--or 2088. This event, however, is not open to the public.