<p>As I read them, Equity agreements also limit the amount of work you can do in Equity Theatres as a non-Equity actor before you have to join Equity. These limits can be pretty restrictive, so you can’t count on booking lots of work in Equity Theatres and remaining non-Equity. Thus, regional theatre work is not so simple.</p>
<p>To clarify what I mean–For regional, it would depend on what equity contract they were running on. Each contract allows different percentages of equity. Smaller theatres or up-and-coming non-profit regionals typically have an equity contract that permits a small percentage of equity actors in the cast, but larger established regionals have the sort of contract that permits only a small percentage of non-equity. Chicago is theatre-rich and has strong regionals that have, say LORT A, which will only allow x percentage of non-equity. If they go above that, they lose their LORT A status; this would be the sort of theatre Merelhay’s D was acting in.</p>
<p>So it depends what sort of regional we’re talking about. I guess I was talking about more established large regionals which have substantial equity performers. You can have a really amazing career building from established regionals, if you are so blessed. I guess that’s what I meant.</p>
<p>Connections - yes, those are the theaters I think of when I think of Regional, the theaters that are well-known outside of their particular region, e.g. Goodspeed, Papermill, MUNY, etc. A career in these types of theaters is a nice career. The small local Equity theaters that only have a few contracts are not really Regional, in my mind.</p>
<p>Yes, agreed Merlehay–I’m on the same page as you. This is also what I think of when I say ‘regional.’</p>