Theater Actors Urged to ‘Proactively’ Avoid Breaking the SAG-AFTRA Blow – Deadline

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Actors Equity President Kate Shindel urges theater actors to “proactively and aggressively avoid breaking” the SAG-AFTRA strike by accepting inadvertently striking work.

In a letter to members of Equity, which represents stage actors and stage managers, Shindle wrote, “Know this: The other side will try to pit us against each other to keep putting out content. Don’t fall for it.”

“I cannot overstate how important it is that members (and future members!) proactively and vigorously avoid @sagaftra strikebreakers,” Shindle wrote, adding: “If you are offered work of any kind for a #AMPTP employer, don’t take it.” any The word of the third party stating that it is ‘okay’ or ‘not covered by the strike’…contact the sagaftra and ask if the performance of the work in question will undermine the strike.”

Read Shindle’s entire post below.

“If you don’t know if you’re being asked to do amazing work, that’s understandable; it’s a complicated issue,” Schindel says. “But each of us has to make sure we don’t betray other workers, even if our faces aren’t on camera. Performing strikes creates a race to the bottom.”

Shindle reminds Equity members that work withheld by SAG-AFTRA members includes auditioning for AMPTP projects, in-progress, post-production, merchandising, and more. “When in doubt – or to report hacked activity – contact sagaftra as soon as possible.”

“Every strike matters,” wrote the Equity president, “but this strike is existential. This is a generational fight for a fair and working entertainment industry, and our opponents have nearly unlimited resources. But we have the workers. We can make it.”

The SAG-AFTRA strike will not affect Broadway productions. SAG-AFTRA members who appear on Broadway work under stock contracts, with actors usually having dual union memberships.