Equity Rep Waives Goodbye

When George Ives joined Actors’ Equity in 1943 and for a while thereafter, nonmusical plays outnumbered musicals by 3 to 1 among U.S. commercial productions, he estimated. That was great for the young actor Ives, who “always envied” musical performers but was never one of them.

But nowadays, “that situation has completely reversed,” he said last week. “Musical theater is the commercial theater of today.” Nonmusical dramas and comedies must rely on nonprofit resident theaters, the generally small-profit off-Broadway scene, and, yes, L.A.’s virtually anti-profit 99-Seat Theatre Plan, which Ives helped conceive.

After seven years as Western Regional Director of Actors’ Equity, from which he will retire in April, the 71-year-old Ives reflected on how this difference between the economic prospects for musicals and nonmusicals affects the 12,000 actors in his jurisdiction.

Musical actors within Equity’s ranks tend to attack the 99-Seat Theatre Plan, while nonmusical actors tend to defend it, he said. “There are many more paying outlets for musical performers in L.A. theaters. The musical actor is looking to make a living from live theater, especially since musical work in film and TV has largely disappeared,” Ives said. So musical actors don’t like the token fees allowed under the 99-Seat Plan.

Nonmusical actors, on the other hand, can hardly hope to make a living on the L.A. stage. But they can more easily obtain paying work in TV and movies, because so many of the nonmusical scripts that once might have become plays now go straight to film or TV (Ives cited “The Seven Year Itch,” which he was in on Broadway but which would start as a screenplay today, he said). Nonmusical actors don’t mind so much that the bulk of L.A. stage productions pay paltry wages--as long as they get the chance to exercise their stage muscles.

Ives joined the Equity staff in 1968, helped devise the old Equity Waiver system in 1972 and then helped transform it into the 99-Seat Plan in 1988. He took his current job in 1990, two years after the bitterly divisive “Waiver Wars” were waged over this issue. He has tried to be a moderating influence in the still-ongoing dispute, as reflected in his comments last week about current talks over how the system might be further changed.

“The only thing I’m fighting for is that everybody recognize everybody else’s needs and worries,” Ives said. “It won’t work if something is shoved down someone’s throat. It’s important that changes be done by consensus, not that they represent one group’s wish list.”

The 99-seat plan wouldn’t be so critical if L.A. had more mid-sized theaters. Equity “tries constantly to come up with varying types of contracts and concessions” to encourage the growth of such theaters, Ives said. “The union spends its whole day trying to protect its members and the source of their work. It’s a daily balancing act.”

Ives hopes his recently elected successor, John Holly, can “find new ways to help develop companies.” Holly’s recent experience as a manager at nonprofit theaters “can be a big plus,” Ives said. “He knows their budgets and methods and revenue sources.”

Don’t expect Ives to leave the field altogether. Besides serving as a consultant at Equity to help Holly learn the ropes, Ives may start “pounding the pavement looking for acting jobs,” he said. He hasn’t acted much since the ‘60s, when he was perhaps best known as a TV regular on “The Hathaways” (“a terrible series,” he said) and “Mr. Roberts.” But “I don’t think age has much to do with it. The acting process is innate.” Still, he doesn’t plan “to run up hills or draw swords. I’ll leave that to Arnold Schwarzenegger.”