3 Theaters Want to Use Union Actors : Stage: Groups ask Actors Equity to apply 99-seat plan to their venues under a one-year pilot program.

In an effort to improve the quality of their productions, three small Orange County theater companies have asked the Actors Equity Assn. to allow them to cast union-professional actors for token wages.

The companies--the Way Off Broadway Playhouse and the Alternative Repertory Theatre in Santa Ana and the Backstage Theatre in Costa Mesa--made their proposal Tuesday to a committee of actors and stage managers at the union’s western regional office in Los Angeles.

They want the union to apply its so-called 99-Seat Theater Plan to each of their venues under a one-year pilot program that would enable them to employ members of Actors Equity for payments of between $5 and $14 per performance for up to 80 performances.

As proposed, according to union official Michael Van Duzer, the pilot program would affect only those three theaters and does not ask the union to extend its 99-Seat Theater Plan, currently operating in Los Angeles County, to Orange County as a whole.

The union plan, modified in 1988 from Equity Waiver, entitles union members to “showcase” their work at Los Angeles theaters with 99 seats or less for minimal payment. A similar showcase system, but with more stringent rules, also exists in New York and San Francisco.

Van Duzer said Wednesday that committee action is not expected before mid-January on the proposal put forward by Tony Reverditto of the 48-seat Way Off Broadway, Patricia L. Terry of the 61-seat Alternative Rep and Al Valletta of the 49-seat Backstage Theatre.

“It was a terrific presentation professionally done,” Van Duzer said. “But we didn’t have enough committee people at the meeting to discuss it. This is not something we can take lightly.”

Reverditto, who initiated the proposal and subsequently banded together with Terry and Valletta, said four members of the 18-person union committee heard the presentation. They seemed “very positive” about it, he said.

Before the meeting on Tuesday, Van Duzer was highly skeptical about the prospect of union approval.

“I don’t see the possibility of showcasing in Orange County,” he said, “and that was the main reason for the 99-seat plan in the first place.

“As for the idea that it promotes the growth of small theaters, you could point to the fact that in Los Angeles, where the plan has been allowed, there hasn’t been any growth of small theaters. Working down there for nothing is not growth.”

Van Duzer also said “small theaters from San Diego to Seattle are paying Equity rates under contract” and that the question of fairness to them could arise if this proposal went through.

Nevertheless, his skepticism seemed to soften slightly after the meeting--partly because the proposal was limited to three theaters and, in his view, “would not have a wide impact.

“But none of us is particularly cognizant of the non-union scene in Orange County,” he added. “So the committee is bound to do some investigative research and fact-finding.”

If the committee were to agree with the proposal, Van Duzer said, it would recommend approval to the union’s board, which would then make a decision that still would require approval by the 40,000-member union’s national office in New York.