Equity (trade union)

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**Equity**

Founded	1930
Country	United Kingdom
Affiliation	TUC, STUC
Key people	Christine Payne, general secretary Harry Landis, president
Office location	London
Website	www.equity.org.uk

Equity (formerly British Actors' Equity Association) is the actors' trade union in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1930 by a group of West End performers. Equity is the British counterpart of several American unions, including Actors' Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, embracing all of their jurisdictions in a single union.

Equity was the last of the closed shop unions. This was made illegal in 1981[1]; it is now no longer a requirement that a professional actor be a member of Equity. [2] [3]

Equity can only have one actor with any particular name on its books. This has resulted in several stage names, such as David Jason (born David White), David Walliams (born David Williams) and Simon Gregson (born 'Simon Gregory')

1 General Secretaries
2 Presidents
3 Criticism
4 Exchange of Actors between U.K. and U.S.
5 Parody
6 External links

[edit] General Secretaries

1932:
1930s: David Henley
1940: Llewellyn Rees
1946:
Gordon Sandison
Gerald Croasdell
1970s: Peter Plouviez
1991: Ian McGarry
2005: Christine Payne

[edit] Presidents

1932: Godfrey Seymour Tearle
1940 - 1945: Lewis Thomas Casson
1949 - 1969: Felix Aylmer
1973 - 1974: André Morell
1984 - 1986: Derek Bond
2000: Harry Landis

[edit] Criticism

Equity has been heavily criticised by up and coming actors. One requirement of becoming part of Equity is to have paid experience in the entertainment industry. Most agents do not touch actors who are not part of Equity and therefore there is no way for an aspiring actor to get his/her foot on the ladder, unless they are born into a family which has connections. Equity has been described as "A Catch 22 Scenario."

[edit] Exchange of Actors between U.K. and U.S.

Under current rules, a British or American producer who wants to bring a British actor to New York must seek the approval of American Actors Equity, just as British Equity's approval is needed to bring an American actor to London. In theory the two unions try to balance the exchange, but over the years it has been charged that the provisions for exchange have been unevenly applied. Many feel that the restrictions should be ended or loosened, while others feel differently, claiming that the flow of talent across the Atlantic is mostly one way, from East to West. While established stars are normally admitted automatically under common visa exceptions, the problem arises with non-star talent.

[edit] Parody

In 2008 Actors' Inequity, a spoof of the Actors' Equity website, was launched. The site offers an "Inequity Card" for performers to carry. In addition, Actors' Inequity offers free resources to non-union and non-paid actors - and to non-equity theatres. Actors' Inequity was criticized originally for supporting "unpaid actors" until it defined them (in its "About Inequity" section) as "developing actors and community players"^[1] (those who volunteer their time to community theaters). Realizing that all actors must start somewhere, the theatre community has now embraced the organization. In February, 2008, they touted more than 200 members^[2].