ACTORS' EQUITY MENDING NOT BUSTING

AEA COUNCIL MENDING NOT BUSTING ITSELF As usual I make no pretense about speaking for anyone other than myself. Where I respect opposing views and viewers I am not easily moved from my position. Let me set out the bases for my YES VOTE. The apparent division among Equity members is created by circumstances that have had thirty years to mature. Many Equity members have strong and binding relationships with Producers – some producers are Equity members. I see Producers as the business part of theatre. It should be understandable that a producer’s primary interest is not the same as Equity’s primary interest. What Equity Council’s position has done is fracture the relationship between its members and the producers of theatre. Members who are bound to Producers feel the same pain producers feel and respond by siding with the NO VOTES of producers – it’s an understandable reaction; but one that will not benefit Equity members in the long run. As an actor I think 99 Seat Producers must and will continue to play their important role in the life of theatre here in the LA area. As an Equity member I will always support my union when it moves to protect my wellbeing as a professional actor.

ACTORS' EQUITY COUNCIL ON 99 ALTERNATIVES

EQUITY COUNCIL ON 99 ALTERNATIVES I have the capacity to reel out a lot of rhetoric about why I voted YES on the referendum and why I fully support the Council’s decision now. I prefer, however, to cut through the hyperbole and get to the heart of the matter as I’m experiencing it. The reality of LA’s 99 Seat Theatre is that actors are its life blood – many of the actors are Equity Members; that reality presently compensates Equity Actors by allowing them to work just for the love of doing the work; that reality would have continued to exclude actors from any money consideration if it were not for Equity Council entering that reality with a process for 99 Seaters to Pay Equity members. Like many union actors, I do not get enough work to pay for all of my living expenses. So for me, receiving some money for all the work I do is vitally important – I don’t just work for the love of doing it.

ACTORS’ EQUITY REFERENDUM VOTE – “NO” VOTES WON BIG

ACTORS’ EQUITY REFERENDUM VOTE – “NO” VOTES WON BIG Conflicting opinions don’t get me too excited even when I’m on the losing side of the vote. If Equity Council Members fail to establish the means by which Equity Actors and Stage Managers share in the benefits of their labor then all Equity members will lose and Equity Association will fail to achieve its long standing mission. Adolphus A Ward Equity Actor

ABOUT BOOKS AND READING

SHARING THOUGHTS ON BOOKS AND READING I use this space to thank Dr. Rosie Milligan for the opportunity to show and make my work available to the reading public. All day Saturday 18 April I will have a table at BLACK WRITERS ON TOUR. My trilogy of books is Historical Family Fiction – 3 books about three generations of the same family. I have long been an advocate for literacy. Reading is a skill; a skill that has to be acquired and developed. If you don’t like to read, it’s probably because you don’t read well – in order to read well you must READ READ READ and READ SOME MORE. On Saturday 18 April I will give a limited number of FREE BOOKS to High School – junior senior – and College Students. Click the link below for more information: http://www.blackwritersontour.com/