Kate Shindle: Last News

has responded to those leaked Jesse Williams nudes.Currently home to Williams’ “Take Me Out’ play, the theater said it was “appalled” that a spectator broke its sealed-phone policy and shared the eye-opening footage on social media. “Taking naked pictures of anyone without their consent is highly objectionable and can have severe legal consequences,” the theater said in a statement shared on Instagram Tuesday.

Actors’ Equity is blasting an audience member who secretly videotaped Jesse Williams’ nude scene while performing in Take Me Out at the Second Stage Theater in NYC and then released it on Twitter. Equity called it an act of “sexual harassment and an appalling breach of consent.”

Despite theater industry pledges to improve its track record on diversity and inclusion in hiring, the follow-through has fallen “far short” of the promises, says a new report by Actors’ Equity Association.

Actors’ Equity Association is expanding eligibility for membership to include any actor or stage manager who can demonstrate they have worked professionally in the United States, a move that could significantly broaden access to the organization.

Actors’ Equity says that fully vaccinated theater companies now can dispense with masking and Covid-19 testing mandates. The live-theater union’s newly updated protocols will remain in effect through the end of September.

Refresh for updates Hollywood and the Beltway praised the “guilty, guilty, guilty” murder and manslaughter verdicts against former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd today: “Thank God,” tweeted Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan, summing up the response. “#BlackLivesMatter.”

Actors’ Equity Association is calling on producer Scott Rudin, who “stepped back” from his Broadway productions today in response to allegations of workplace abuse, to release employees from nondisclosure agreements.

Editors note: Earlier this week, IATSE president Matthew Loeb informed President Joe Biden that the union’s members “stand ready to help build vaccination sites across the country, or to convert existing entertainment venues and convention centers into vaccination sites in order to get shots into the arms of Americans as rapidly as possible.” The Broadway League also promised support for the effort, joining other owners and operators of live venues in offering locations and staff to assist in the vaccination process.

David Robb Labor EditorThe war of words in the increasingly bitter jurisdictional dispute between SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity continued today with Equity president Kate Shindle blasting SAG-AFTRA for interfering in her union’s internal affairs by launching a “sham investigation” into one of its committees tasked with finding jobs for Equity members in live theater presentations captured on film, tape or digitally – a jurisdiction both unions claim.According to Equity, more than 240 stage productions that were recorded for remote viewing during the pandemic have been performed under its contracts, while 60-plus have been performed under SAG-AFTRA’s contracts.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticFor only the second time in its century-plus history, Actors’ Equity Association, the union representing more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers in live theater, has endorsed a candidate for U.S. president and vice president: Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris.“It didn’t have to be this way,” said Kate Shindle, president of Actors’ Equity Association.

Elaine Low Senior TV WriterActors’ Equity Association, the union that represents more than 51,000 actors and stage managers, including around 750 Disney live performers, has reached an agreement with the Walt Disney Company for its performers to return to work at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., as the company sets up a COVID-19 testing site outside of the park. But even that memorandum of understanding has prompted further points of contention between the conglomerate and the actors’ union.“We have been consistent that testing is an important part of ensuring a safe workplace for Equity performers, and today, I’m pleased to see that Disney World has agreed,” said Kate Shindle, president of Actors’ Equity Association in a statement.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticWalt Disney World has established free, on-site coronavirus testing for employees and their families, drawing applause from Actors’ Equity Association after a two-month-long stand-off over the matter.Equity announced today that it has signed an agreement with the resort to allow union members to return to work at the Florida amusement park.“We have been consistent that testing is an important part of ensuring a safe workplace for Equity performers, and today, I’m pleased to see that Disney World has agreed,” said Kate Shindle, President of Actors’ Equity Association.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticActors’ Equity Association is calling the pending expiration of federal pandemic unemployment benefits “inexcusable” and says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “dithers” as theater workers “stare down an uncertain future.”“Equity members want to go back to work, but the industry has been shut down since March because in most states, it is still not safe for mass gatherings,” said Kate Shindle, Equity President. “The artists who fuel our gigantic, nationwide economic engine have gone months without work, and the weekly $600 included in the CARES Act is all that is keeping our workers afloat as they stare down an uncertain future.

By David Robb

By David Robb

The show might go on sooner than we think, but the reopening of the Great White Way comes with a few guidelines that The Actors Equity Association (AEA) will be following when the lights go back on.

By Greg Evans