referendum | Intimate Excellent
Dear Pro99 Members and Supporters,
Please add your name to sign the letter to AEA from Pro99. Once we have collected signatures from the community, it will be sent to AEA, and disseminated in the media with signed names attached.
Letter to AEA in Support of Pro99’s Call for a New Referendum
We, the undersigned, are dedicated to the survival and growth of Intimate Theatre in Los Angeles. We are actors, stage managers, playwrights, designers, directors, producers and hyphenates of all of the above. We are also audience members, neighborhood restaurants and bars, and local businesses that benefit from the thriving L.A. Intimate Theatre landscape. We are committed to preserving, protecting and promoting Theatre’s of 99-seats or less, not only in Los Angeles but throughout the United States, while defending Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) members’ rights, privileges and protections when they perform in such venues.
Currently, LA’s 99-seat theatres are under unparalleled threat. With arts funding in decline, and at 1/10 of what New York City garners, we are also now faced with an assault from AEA, which seeks to raze the LA intimate theater landscape.
We are PRO99. We are dedicated to ensuring that this does not happen.
A lawsuit by AEA members and producers, on behalf of the Intimate Theatre community, has been filed against Equity. Pro99 supports this effort and is actively engaging the community in the court of public opinion, and by reaching out to people in all walks of life affected by theatres of 99-seat or less.
Additionally, we support AEA members and Intimate Theatres nationwide that would also benefit from a 99-seat plan that would allow them to incubate and develop new works to eventually go to contract, under vital union protections. We believe these protections and opportunities should be more readily available nationwide, and should certainly be protected, not rolled back, here in Los Angeles.
AEA has put forth a concerted effort to silence us. Our voices are not included in any official union communications, and what communications are issued by AEA are not only one-sided, but filled with misinformation, half-truths, untruths and outright distortions. We will continue to correct the record and put forth our own positive story.
We will also continue to enlist the community in the fight. Plaintiff and Review Committee member Gary Grossman has issued a challenge to AEA President Kate Shindle to make public AEA’s plan for 99-seat theatre, and we will make a new proposal public. We support Grossman’s proposal to have a side by side referendum that will allow LA’s union actors to choose between AEA’s plan and our own.
Our community is united. We will prevail.
TO ADD YOUR NAME TO THE LIST OF SIGNERS, CLICK TO SIGN HERE
Posted in actors, artist, Arts, arts organizations, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, non-profit organization, performing arts, Theater, theatre
Tagged 99-Seat Plan, actors, Actors Equity Association, AEA, Fountain Theatre, Gary Grossman, intimate theatre, Los Angeles, performing arts, petition, Pro99, referendum, theater, theatre, union
Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell speaks to the press in Hollywood.
In a strong show of local government support to LA’s intimate theatre community, Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell spoke out yesterday to oppose the controversial referendum proposed by Actors Equity Association (AEA) that would significantly alter the 99 Seat Theatre Plan, which has helped intimate theatres like the Fountain Theatre flourish in Los Angeles for at least three decades. In the view of many Equity members and the LA theatre community, AEA’s referendum would severely diminish the vibrant LA cultural landscape, reduce the opportunities of many of its own actor members, and impact local businesses citywide.
“Small theatre isn’t just about artistic expression,” said O’Farrell in his statement on the sidewalk of Hollywood’s Theatre Row. “It’s also good for the Los Angeles economy.” He also stated to the group of supporters, “99 seat theatre really built the theatre scene in LA.”
The Councilmember supports the surging ‘I Love 99‘ movement and its belief that artists have the right to perform in an intimate and non-commercial setting, if they so choose.
Actor Tim Robbins.
Also present were actors Tim Robbins, Noah Wyle, Deborah S. Craig, Adam Silver, Scott Lowell, Richard Azurdia, Frances Fisher, Parv Cheena, Jack Laufer, Angel Parker, Katie Lowes, Jane Kaczmarek and artistic directors Daniel Henning (The Blank Theatre), Martha Demson (Open Fist) and Stephen Sachs (The Fountain Theatre).
Stephen Sachs, Parv Cheena, Jack Laufer, Adam Silver
Says Fountain Co-Artistic Director Stephen Sachs: “There’s a reason why it’s called non-profit theatre. This is about giving actors the freedom to create, the freedom to choose for themselves how and where they perform their craft.”
More info: www.Ilove99.org On Twitter: #ilove99
Posted in Acting, actors, Arts, arts organizations, Fountain Theatre, non-profit organization, performing arts, Theater, theatre
Tagged 99-Seat Plan, actors, Actors Equity Association, Adam Silver, Angel Parker, Daniel Henning, Deborah S. Craig, Fountain Theatre, Frances Fisher, ILove99, Jack Laufer, Jane Kaczmarek, Katie Lowes, Los Angeles, Los Angeles City Council, Martha Demson, Mitch O’Farrell, Noah Wyle, Open Fist Theatre, Parv Cheena, performing arts, referendum, Richard Azurdia, Scott Lowell, Stephen Sachs, The Blank Theatre, theater, theatre, Tim Robbins