www.broadwayworld.com: You may remember that in fall 2020, Actors' Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA were involved in a bitter dispute about streaming theater. The unions then reached a temporary agreement allowing Equity to handle most streaming theater. All was quiet. But that agreement has expired and SAG-AFTRA believes it is back to representing actors for streaming theatrical projects.
2 comments:
I remember in middle school learning about which union had which domain when watching a Pro Shot of Newsies and being quite frustrated at the divide between unions. I understand that there have to be separate unions for separate parts of the entertainment world, however recordings of live theater falling under SAG’s jurisdiction limits the number of shows that can be made available to a wider audience. With the Heathers proshot coming out and the Beetlejuice proshot underway this is giving audience members chances to see shows or specific shows that they would not have been able to see otherwise. I personally think proshots that take place in an AEA house should fall under the AEA because even though content is being streamed on a screen, recording of shows act as an extension of shows itself and therefore should fall under the same union. With streaming of shows returning to SAG less shows will be released online making theater less accessible yet again.
Theo
I had no idea that Equity and SAG-AFTRA went to war over streaming rights. I mean I understand why both sides were upset but the rights to actors and crew in certain theatres is nothing to overlook if some people will be screwed over in the process with health insurance and pay rate implications. In retrospect I think they could’ve cooperated better with one another considering in the end I think everyone just wanted theatre back in one way or another. During the pandemic people were trying all sorts of ways to keep theatre alive but I also take the position that in hybrid and live stream projects those are also Covid bee hives even with masks because everyone is still brought together to work in close quarters with one another. Honestly in the end as much as financial ruin the lack of shows was causing theatre companies across the board, they all should’ve just backed down during the pandemic involving any sort of projects that required people to come to together to perform because lives aren’t worth an hour and half piece of entertainment.
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