Alan Eisenberg, executive director of Actors' Equity since 1981, will remain in that post until 2006, it was recently announced. Equity Council met on May 15 and decided on the reappointment. According to Equity, Eisenberg is just the seventh person to head the powerful stage performers union, which negotiates actors' contracts with Broadway theatre producers and owners, Off-Broadway theatres, regional theatre companies in the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) as well as many other sort of performance venues. In October 2001, Eisenberg will become the longest-serving chief executive in the history of Equity, which was founded in 1913.

"There have been a lot of changes since the early '80s," said Eisenberg in a statement. "I am particularly proud that the Union's finances have been stable, in spite of the ups and downs of the economy. Equity has been in the black for 20 years.

—By Robert Simonson