STAGE MANAGER-INCLUSIVE CONTRACT LANGUAGE

​Look in any Equity rulebook, and you're likely to find a section labeled "Definitions." It'll say something like this:
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"The term 'Actor' shall refer to and include all persons who are or become members of Equity, including Principal, Chorus, Stage Manager, Assistant Stage Manager..."

​That's right. In our agreements, we use the word "Actor" to mean "Stage Manager."

While the use of the term "Actors with a Capital A" may be contractually sound, it serves to erase the existence of our stage manager members in our rulebooks. Words matter, and in a union in which stage managers are already a permanent minority, and are constantly undervalued by both their fellow members and our contracts, that erasure simply adds insult to injury.

Equity has just begun the process of moving towards gender-neutrality in its agreements (which I have consistently pushed for), removing the use of the pronouns he/him/his that have historically been used to refer to all of our members, regardless of their gender identity. This is no different. This may seem like a small problem, but it warrants a fix. And I think it's a simple one. What unites us isn't our profession, but the fact that we're professionals. While we may not all be actors, we are all WORKERS, and our contract language should reflect that. 

I will strive to ensure that the catchall use of the word Actor is replaced with the term Worker in all of Equity's rulebooks.