LITNY responds to changes in the basic AEA Showcase Code

Here is their press release:

League of Independent Theater Responds to New AEA Basic Showcase Code

After many years of determined advocacy in the Off-Off, Independent community with the terms of the Actors' Equity Association Basic Showcase Code, Equity has announced a new Code to take effect Monday, May 25, 2009. The new Code increases the allowed budget of a production from $20,000 to $35,000 (exclusive of AEA actor stipends) and increases the allowed rehearsal period from 4 weeks to 5. Other core issues, such as the number of performances allowed and the inability to videotape a Showcase production, remain unchanged.

The League of Independent Theater New York (LITNY) Executive Director John Clancy responds, "We applaud the efforts of AEA in addressing the critical issue of Code reform and see this revised Code as a small but important step toward their recognition of Off-Off Broadway as a legitimate sector of New York City's cultural landscape. We will continue to advocate for a new Code that recognizes the economic reality of our environment, protects the AEA actor, and allows Off-Off and Independent Theater to flourish and continue its tradition of providing the foundation of theatrical artistic culture to New York City."

LITNY is the advocacy group for Off-Off Broadway, organized to promote the artistic and economic interests of theater professionals working in New York City in theaters of up to 99 seats; to organize and protect its members to ensure that independent theater is economically viable for all of its practitioners; and to advocate on behalf of the decades-old tradition of off-off Broadway theater to ensure that it remains, and grows, as a thriving artistic and economic sector in New York City.


Visit the League of Independent Theater on the web at www.litny.org