The Business of Show Business

November 2010

Who owns the image of an actor? How can artists protect the integrity of their work? Should actors be allowed to work for free if they so choose? These and other equally tricky questions are considered in theatre & drama professor Greg Poggi’s “Legal Issues in the Theatre” class, which Alan Eisenberg (BA ’56), long-time Executive Director of Actors’ Equity, visited on November 19.

Formed in 1913, Actors’ Equity is now the labor union for more than 48,000 actors and stage managers in the U.S. Originally organized to fight against extreme exploitation, its job is still to negotiate wages and working conditions, but also to “advance, promote, and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society.”

When Eisenberg retired as Executive Director in 2006, he opted out of a lavish—and expensive—party in his honor, deciding instead to use the money for the Actors’ Equity/Alan Eisenberg Award in Musical Theatre. Through his efforts, $130,000 was raised to endow the award, which now gives out $5,000 each year for a graduating senior in musical theatre.

In the class, Eisenberg laid out the history of unions that led up to the formation of Actors Equity, including a 13-day strike, for example, in June 1960, that closed all Broadway theatres and resulted in the New York City ‘amusement tax’ being repurposed for pensions and health care. With Eisenberg was Nick Wyman, well-regarded actor and current President of Actors’ Equity.

Educated as a lawyer at NYU after graduating from Michigan, Eisenberg’s love of the arts drew him to Actors’ Equity in 1981. He visits his alma mater at least once a year to talk to students.