In the late 19th Century the traditions of the acting profession had remained largely unchanged since before the birth of the country. The actor/manager was the forerunner of the modern director, staging the play and looking out for the welfare of his fellow cast members. But show business was starting to become big business and in 1896 a group of professional managers (who were not actors) formed The Syndicate, in a power play to gain control of virtually all theatrical activity in America.
Actors were suddenly forced to work under whatever arbitrary rules The Syndicate imposed upon them, often rehearsing and even performing without pay. Actors also provided their own costumes and often had to pay their own travel expenses when touring. Some managers made a habit of skipping town when the tour was over and stranding the cast in some far-flung location, often leaving the unpaid bills to the debt of the actors.
As the 20th Century began and organized labor was starting to gain a foothold in many areas of employment some actors advocated the formation of a union of their own to protect their interests and to curb the rampant abuses being practiced by many mangers throughout the theatrical industry. But many other actors resisted the notion of organizing on the grounds that they were artists in a noble and traditional profession and not bricklayers or carpenters. Several unsuccessful attempts at organizing finally led to the establishment of the Actors’ Equity Association which engaged in a lengthy battle with management for the development of a Standard Contract and a guarantee of fair employment to all actors.
In 1919, pushed to the brink of frustration, Actors’ Equity staged the unthinkable...a strike that closed down most of Broadway and finally forced management back to the bargaining table. It was a remarkable chapter in American history as well as theatrical history for it paved the way for other artists and entertainers to be taken seriously as a body of employees with the resolve to organize and to fight for better working conditions.
This is the background for the musical play Equity and the backdrop against which multiple stories develop as fictional and historical characters interweave throughout the various subplots.
Equity is much more than a show about a labor dispute, it’s a story of people, famous and forgotten, who made difficult choices and took tremendous risks, often putting themselves at odds with their friends and associates. It’s a colorful story about an exciting and dynamic period of theatrical history. It’s a musical that looks at the grand scale of history through the intimate portraits of the people who lived through it.
