Equity earnings up

Stage actors work, earn more, survey finds

By NICK MADIGAN

More Actors' Equity members worked during the 1997-98 season than ever before, according to a study undertaken by the stage performers' union.

Employment, described in terms of workweeks -- or pay periods -- reached 275,240, a 4.9% increase over the previous season. As a result, overall earnings were in excess of $233 million, up almost 10% and the largest amount earned by members in Equity's history. The union, which has about 36,000 members, was founded in 1913.

The survey, published in the December edition of Equity News, says that the number of performers and stage managers working during the season was an all-time high of 15,543, averaging about 5,073 each week. There has also been a steady increase in work for chorus actors -- from 17% to 24% -- reflecting a hike in the number of musicals that contain more chorus than principal parts.

East Coast oriented

Equity continues to be heavily oriented toward the East Coast, from where 62% of the membership hails. The West accounts for slightly less than half that number, 30%, while the central region makes up just 9%. But the East, home of Broadway and the originating point of most touring companies, pulled in a mammoth 75%, or $175.9 million, of total earnings; the West made 14%, or $31.8 million, and the center of the country brought in 11%, or $25.9 million.

The so-called production contract was at its highest point ever for the '97-'98 season, with 83,611 weeks worked. Of the 2,562 contract performers -- 16.3% of all working members -- employed during the past season, Disney hired 167 and Livent 307. Together, those two relatively new theatrical production organizations now account for about 18.5% of all production employment -- although the figures were largely compiled before Livent's debilitating financial problems became known.

LORT up

Production earnings for Broadway, "point of organization" and touring companies are at a little over $132 million, representing about 57% of the total compensation paid to members. Second in the earnings roster are LORT, or resident theater, figures, at 15.2% of all compensation, or $35.5 million. The LORT contract showed its first increase in employment after many years of decline.

The Orlando Disney World contract, initiated in 1990, already represents about 3.5% of total earnings, or $8.1 million.

The continuing increase in money earned by performers and stage managers under Equity contracts meant that their median earnings in 1997 were $6,276 a year. "Although this may appear as a starkly low figure, it represented a 145% growth over 20 years -- or an average 7.25% a year -- far better than the inflation rate for the same period of time," a summary of the survey says.

The survey's writers say that, even though it has been almost a decade since the last dues increase, "Equity is still holding its own in terms of revenues over expenses," and that the union should be able to maintain financial stability into the year 2000.

Total revenues

Total revenues during the period were about $10.5 million, while operating expenses for all five Equity offices -- in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Orlando -- are projected at $10.1 million, with capital expenditures at about $400,000.

Equity has long surveyed its members and their employment statistics as a way to "assist in negotiating the dozens of contracts we bargain and enforce each day, influencing arts-related legislation, determining our financial priorities, and assisting in the establishment of policy objectives for the association," according to Guy Pace, the union's assistant exec director for national finance and administration.