Public reading during rehearsal process

[lsears]

I start prep for my next play on February 6th.  All is very straightforward and my personal prep has been easy until I learned that we're doing a staged reading one evening in the rehearsal process.  The theater is promoting this event which is free and open to the public and will also involve the mayor's office.  I am meeting with the theater next week when I get back from vacation to talk about what this means for me, for actors, what the expectations are, and what the limits are, and will be calling our AEA deputy as well to check in with them (LORT contract).  In the meantime, has anyone else encountered this type of situation before?

[DeeCap]

I had something similar happen to me. During the show run the theatre decided to do a staged reading on our night off. A few actors were cast as well as myself.  They decided to do it on a separate equity contract. (staged reading) It was a one day rehearsal process with the reading happening in the evening. I can't recall too much as it was a long time ago, but what I do remember was that it was really specific on the start/end date and that if it went over it would go into overtime.
I don't recall if I had to deal with actors going into overtime because the actors were on two contracts.  (Again, it was a long time ago)

Hope this helps a little

[hbelden]

It's a very good idea to call the AEA business rep about this.  It's so outside of my experience that's the first place I would go. 

[nick_tochelli]

Why as a matter of fact....I just did this exact thing a couple months ago. The show I did in DC had a reading at the Ford's Theater a month before we opened.

Now, your rep in Boston might render a different decision than what happened for us (after all, each production is different), but we got paid our weekly salary plus a Performance payment. So it would be like, lets say $800 in salary, plus a $282 additional "bonus" for the reading as an example. Basically our reading was incorporated into our regular contract.

But basically, the reading for us counted as a performance, we were compensated, and we went back into normal rehearsals to complete the show for tech week/opening.

[MatthewShiner]

Nick - what contract were you performing under?

[nick_tochelli]

Ack.....uh.......I always freakin' forget this......

I want to say LORT B in reference to Off-Broadway.

PS: Note to all Up and Coming AEA SMs.....learn the damn contract structures. It saves you so many headaches and makes you look like less of a toolbox.

[MatthewShiner]

That would be an odd reference to go form one contract to another . . .
usually it's a LOA (Letter of Agreement) to a Specific Contract (LORT, Off-Broadway, SPT).

But your combo would be INTERESTING . . .

[loebtmc]

The thing I'd look for whether you are required to have a full day off or a daylight day of rest versus a separate contract or a concessioned one-off.

But yes, first line of defense is your AEA rep

[nick_tochelli]

Matt wins. Your combination was correct. I knew I was wrong, but I couldn't find my copy of the contract to make a more intelligent guess