Showcase theatre
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Showcase Theatre is a form of theatre used by professional actors to (a) showcase their talents before agents and casting directors and others in order to gain work and to (b) exercise their acting skills. No pay is involved, but the playwright and the producer may, and the theatre owner will, receive some monetary value.
The concept has caused rifts within the actor unions. For example Actors' Equity Association was concerned that the concept would enable producers to exploit union members, and no line had been drawn between free audition style performances and free full play performances before a paying audience. Then, due to internal pressure from members, rules were implemented.
In the United States, New York, the country's agreed upon theatrical center with Broadway and Off-Broadway, 16 performances may be given under the Equity Showcase Code, and then the show must close (see below for the latest rules).
In Los Angeles, less strong theatrically, there was an uprising in the ranks, and the solution to a strike within Equity was the development of the 99 seat plan. That is, a theatre with no more, but often much less, than 99 seats, and limitless runs (see below for the latest rules). In practice, this has meant that actors get to fulfil both of the above functions, especially important in an industry venue dominated by television and movie companies, and the expectation that casts will constantly change as actors get jobs or leave for other reasons, and get to be paid between 7 and 25 dollars a performance (the producer limited to ticket prices not above $34.95). The theatre industry as a whole is impacted by what full scale professional companies and producers feel is unfair competition.
There are many "vanity" productions, or shows put on by wealthy stars who can afford not to be paid, and shows put on as "tryouts", showcasing and testing work by anxious dramatists. In some cases, 99 seat theatres have been known to secure rights to a play and cast it with star names, and put it on just before a professional company is due to present the same play. This happened with Pinter's Betrayal, between the 99 seat Matrix in the middle of Hollywood starring Ian McShane and the South Coast Repertory just over 30 miles away in Costa Mesa with unknowns, both reviewed. And it has happened that foreign stars have showcased their talents in a 99 seater while on a tourist visa in the hope of a big film offer and a green card under the special provisions for foreign artists by US Immigration.
Furthermore, confusing the issues for audiences, newspapers, even the venerable Los Angeles Times, send their critics to see most of the shows, and classify the 99 seaters as "intimate theatre" in their advertising columns. And uneducated audiences do not perceive the difference between such "studio theatre" and fully professional "large or midsize theatre" product.
The solutions to this conflict vary between shutting them up altogether, reverting to a very limited run, or organising an attempt to get the film and TV production houses to pay some of it, since they are mutual beneficiaries of the system.
The true dilemma for the beginning actor is whether to remain non-union. The trend is that the smaller theatres are using amateurs fresh from thriving community theatres on the basis that they are becoming more skilled, and that audiences won't perceive any difference. But eventually, that same actor will get a paying offer, perhaps for a film or television engagement. Actors will then find that they have to join either SAG or AFTRA, and are restricted by the rules of these sister unions not to work for free any longer in theatre and must abide by Equity rules. The dilemma for the unions is that they feel weakened by the movement toward non-union performers.
