Children’s Theatre

A New Chapter in Equity History 

by Barbara Colton  

T.Y.A. Committee Chair

& Chief Contract Negotiator  

1965 – 1988

In June 2019, Equity marked the 50th anniversary of the Theatre for Young Audiences contract, pro-tecting Equity members performing in productions throughout the country. Any review of the origins of the contract would be incomplete without an understanding of my mindset when I began my almost decade long crusade to convince Council and the Executives that Equity was obligated to insure the rights and protection of Equity members working in children’s theatre.

Actors, already working in the jurisdiction which was rich with employment opportunities, were being shockingly exploited and abused.  We were also sustaining career ending physical injuries without any protection, compensation or process to resolve grievances.  In fact, these same deplorable working conditions and management exploitation had existed in 1913 and (as documented by Alfred Harding in The Revolt of the Actors) became the motivating force for the founding of our union.  I am passionately devoted to maintaining historical memory, especially when it relates to the theatre in general and Equity in particular. With this in mind, I review the following history.

A year before I graduated from Boston University Theatre in 1960, I was engaged for a ten week season of non-Equity stock with a salary of $50.00 a week.  However, after working for three weeks without receiving any salary, when the company assembled for dress rehearsal of the third production of the season, we found the theatre padlocked, and the producer vanished along with the box office proceeds.  He had abandoned us, penniless, in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey.  In spite of the summer heat (and mounds of luggage), we had no option but to thumb our way back to N.Y.C.  It was a nightmare and I decided then that I would not continue to pursue my career as an actor unless I was able to do so as a member of Actors’ Equity Association with the dignity and protections of the union contract.  Consequently, when I signed my first Equity contract in January 1961, I had the advantage of knowing exactly why I was joining the union and what I expected to get from the union.

I was ecstatic and fiercely proud of my union card which culminated nine years of training and validated me as a professional actor. By September ’61, I had completed 2 seasons of Resident Dramatic Stock and, when I returned to N.Y., I  was offered a job in a children's theatre company at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music. I was very excited and immediately went up to Equity to inquire what contract I would be signing.  I was therefore shocked and deeply insulted when a condescending business rep laughed at me and said, "There is no contract.  It’s only kiddie theatre and Equity isn’t interested. Just do it and forget about an Equity contract.”

Actors’ Equity Association, founded in 1913, was then forty-eight years old.  In fact, I was told that over the years, numerous attempts had been made to create a Children's Theatre contract but all had failed. Equity had finally concluded that the prob-lems, unique to Children’s Theatre productions and performances, were just “too complicated” and the salary potential “so insignificant”, that any further “effort was simply not worth Equity’s time”. I was incensed, believing this decision to be a total abrogation of Equity’s responsibility.  So I began my eight year fight to impress upon Council and staff that Equity had an obligation to protect actors in children’s theatre productions just as the union accepted it’s responsibility to protect actors in a Broadway company, in stock or on tour.  At the same time, I continued working, without contract, for a variety of children’s theatre companies in N.Y. and on the road.  

All the actors I worked with were fellow Equity members enduring wages and working conditions that were scandalous, regardless of what company we worked for.  It was truly like the wild west and, without an Equity contract, there was no "sheriff in town" to protect our rights, our safety, or our dignity as professional actors.  Although I had become active on several Equity committees, I couldn’t convince Equity staff to recognize the legitimacy of professional children’s theatre.

When I was elected to Council in 1964, I vowed that I would create the contract that I dreamed about to establish Equity's rightful national jurisdiction and I volunteered to Chair, and reactivate, a totally moribund Children’s Theatre committee. Most of my colleagues on Council, like the Equity staff, thought my passion was naive and that, due to my youth and inexperience, I just didn’t understand that staff had already tried, several times over many years, to create such a contract without accomplishing anything.  Everybody tried to convince me that I was the only person interested in a children’s theatre contract and I was, there-fore, pursuing a lost cause. However, as there was no harm in humoring me, President Fred O’Neal agreed to appoint me to the committee Chairman-ship and I began recruiting members to serve.

Then, at a membership meeting in 1965, an actor named JOHN KUHNER took the floor to recount his horrendous and abusive experience, working for a Children’s Theatre company without the protec-tions of an Equity contract.  He demanded to know why there was no contract for Children’s Theatre and how could Council allow such exploitation to exist. His remarks were greeted with sustained applause and I immediately realized this was the opportunity that could change Council’s attitude.  I also knew (from my Council experience) that the whole issue would just get "lost" and nothing would change unless the membership voted on it.  So (without waiting to be recognized) I called out from my seat, "Make a motion!" God bless John Kuhner!  He heard me and did make the motion which instantly passed unanimously. Although Council was still not ready to make a definitive commitment, the committee was instructed to begin developing ideas for a possible negotiation at some time in a vague future.  

The actors I’d appointed to committee had worked for a variety of companies and we began putting together statistics and collecting stories that documented abuse and exploitation. I knew it was imperative to keep the momentum going so I reported our progress, periodically, to Council and, by 1967, I had won the support of several influential Councillors. However, the Executives and staff remained disinterested and conde-scending, even disparaging.

Angus Duncan, then Executive Secretary, scornfully argued, in Council, that "Barbara worries about pin-pricks while I worry about sword thrusts." Marvin Poons, the Business Rep that Angus had assigned to work with the committee, expressed his disdain from the outset by his dismissive attitude and failure to comply with numerous committee requests for statistical information. Their opinions never altered and they persisted with their intransigent conviction that any attempt to negotiate a Children’s Theatre contract would be a ridiculous waste of staff time.  

My cause, however, was nurtured and guided by the dedicated expertise of my mentors on Council: THEO BIKEL, then 1st Vice President; BILL ROSS, former Vice President and Founder of the Stage Manager’s Committee; JEANNA BELKIN, 2nd Vice President and Chair of A.C.C.A.;  NANCY R. POLLOCK, Founding Chair of Equity’s Department to Extend Professional Theatre; and EDITH MEISER, the highly respected and much beloved "Matriarch" of Council. Thanks to the incomparable support of these five Equity giants, the negativity espoused by Angus and Marvin was overruled and Council finally voted to instruct the committee to prepare for negotiation & to alert the children’s theatre producers of Equity’s intention to begin collective bargaining.

Equity has always been extremely sensitive and careful to protect the anonymity of all members. No Equity member, including members of Council, Deputies, or members of a negotiating team should ever be placed in a (career jeopardizing) confron-tational position with management.  Therefore, our negotiating procedures have specified that only members of staff may serve as Spokesperson at the negotiating table. However, the impending negotiations presented a unique situation.  Due to the condescending disinterest and decidedly negative, even antagonistic, attitude of the staff, I was convinced that we were doomed to fail if Marvin Poons lead the negotiations. Therefor, I suggested to Angus that our negotiations need not pose any burden on staff time or duties if Angus wanted to appoint me to be the Spokesperson and I assured him that, although I understood the inherent career risk, I was ready to accept the responsibility. Angus actually seemed relieved by my proposal and appointed me Chief Negotiator for the contract.  I continued in this position for more than twenty years, extending over the subsequent six negotiations, until I left office in 1988.

Negotiations for that first contract were extremely difficult and dragged on for over two years. We were adamant that the contract must include all the boilerplate provisions that were standard in all  Equity Basic Agreements. Nonetheless, the rules in question were totally strange to these producers who had no previous experience with any Equity contracts and they tortured and quibbled over every single word.  However, I knew it was imperative that we maintain the integrity of established Equity concepts and contractual language or risk, inadvertently, doing something that could have an adverse impact on other Equity agreement(s). Furthermore, two of our primary demands became major deal-breaking obstacles.  

EQUITY SHOP. Management fervently argued that it was important that each production be allowed a non-Equity allowance. I made it crystal clear, In my response, this position was a total non-starter fantasy and we would not waste time discussing it. I reminded them that their companies had always been cast with Equity members. I emphatically pointed out that with the creation of the contract, every Equity member would expect, and get, the protection of their union and Equity would not betray any member by trading off anybody’s job(s). I also suggested that I was sure they wouldn’t want to jeopardize the artistic reputation of their companies by offering their audiences inferior productions without the quality of fully trained and experienced Equity actors. Finally, I remained resolute that our demand for Equity Shop was absolute and nonnegotiable!

STAGE MANAGER. Management spluttered and fumed over our demand that every production have a Stage Manager. Indeed, some of their arguments were creative & amusing, if not ignorant and insulting: "A stage manager is unnecessary!"  "There’s no room in the car”  [even] "There’s nothing for a stage manager to do!!!"  One producer insisted his wife “simply turned off the house lights” and “pushed a button” for the stage lights.  Another argued the school janitor could supervise a few students to unload the show.  The one with the (light-switch) wife claimed a teacher could be found to pull the curtain open and closed.  In fact, a major part of negotiations became a virtual class, with me teaching them the job functions and necessity for a Stage Manager. Ultimately, they only "graduated" from class when they accepted my dictum that an Equity Stage Manager for each production was absolute and non-negotiable!

The result of negotiations, including all the provisions of the Standard Equity Contract in addition to all the rules unique to Children’s Theatre production were, at last, ratified by Council and the contract was signed on June 15, 1969.     

We had created the first National Children’s Theatre Contract in Equity history!

In 1975, following our 3rd negotiation, I suggested to Charlie Hull, (then, the Chief Negotiator for management and the producer of Theatreworks USA) that we change the name of the contract to Theatre for Young Audiences.  In taking this action, I hoped to eliminate the stigma, still attached to “children’s theatre”, and any related disparaging references to “kiddie” theatre.  Charlie agreed and the 1975 rule book was published with the new T.Y.A. name.

Of all my contributions during twenty-four years on Council (as Councillor, Recording Secretary, & 4 terms as 1st Vice President) my proudest achievement is the T.Y.A. contract. Indeed one of my classmates from the H.S. of Performing Arts once observed, “While we were making babies, Bobbi was making a contract!”

I note with boundless joy and pride, in the 2014-2015 season (as reported in the Equity News) our members earned T.Y.A. salaries in excess of Four Million Dollars.