Broadway actors are preparing to stage a mass walkout that would shut down 32 stage productions during peak theater season as part of an ongoing dispute over labor conditions. Actors’ Equity, a union representing more than 900 Broadway performers and stage managers, is locked in negotiations with the trade association Broadway League over a new contract, with employers’ healthcare contributions at the heart of the dispute. “Asking our employers to care for our bodies, and to pay their fair share toward our health insurance is not only reasonable and necessary, it’s an investment they should want to make toward the long-term success of their businesses,” said Brooke Shields, a performer and president of Actors’ Equity. “That’s just math. There are no Broadway shows without healthy Broadway actors and stage managers. And there are no healthy actors and stage managers without safe workplaces and stable health insurance.” Although the Broadway League, which represents theater owners, producers, and operators, said it was engaged in “good-faith” negotiations with Actors’ Equity, union members have reportedly authorized the union to commit to a strike and have begun handing out “strike pledge cards” to actors, asking them to commit to a walkout. The last Equity strike was in 1968, resulting in the closure of 19 Broadway shows over three days.
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