Equity in the News Deadline

The executive committee of Actors’ Equity Association unanimously has rejected Walt Disney World’s reopening safety plan for workers because the proposal does not include coronavirus testing for the park’s performers.

With thousands of out-of-work theater professionals likely to become ineligible for their union insurance over the next six months as the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown continues, The Actors Fund is launching a campaign to enhance its health insurance counseling and enrollment support services.

Actors’ Equity Association is calling on Walt Disney World in Florida to follow California’s Disneyland in postponing its reopening due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and to strengthen safety protocols with regular testing, the union said today.

Actors’ Equity said today that while the Department of Labor’s latest jobs report is encouraging, it should not delay passage of legislation pending in Congress that would help record levels of unemployed arts and entertainment workers.

The reopening of Broadway theaters should not come without as much consideration for actors’ safety as for that of audiences, Actors’ Equity Association made clear today in a presentation by union officials and their public health safety consultant Dr. David Michaels.

Disney’s Frozen has become Broadway’s first long-running casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic and industrywide shutdown. The production, which opened March 22, 2018, at the St. James Theatre, announced today that it will not return when Broadway reopens — whenever that might be.

Actors’ Equity Association says it agrees with the Broadway League’s decision to refund Broadway tickets through September 6, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

EXCLUSIVE: Actors’ Equity Association has hired the high-profile safety consultant David Michaels, former administrator of OSHA under President Barack Obama, to advise and help the union develop the steps necessary for reopening Broadway and theaters across the country after the COVID-19 shutdown.

Actors’ Equity Association is calling for federal COBRA subsidies for health insurance as a new report shows skyrocketing unemployment claims by arts and entertainment workers in New York because of the COVID-19 shutdown.

Actors’ Equity, whose membership has been jobless since the COVID-19 shutdown of live theaters across the country, is offering dues relief to those members who need it. The union’s $87 spring basic dues payment, customarily billed in May, has been extended to July 31, and late fees for basic dues and initiation fees that are accrued after April 1 will be waived through Nov. 30.