Broadway Casting Directors Plan Rally for Union Representation | Playbill

Related Articles
Industry News Broadway Casting Directors Plan Rally for Union Representation Casting directors will assemble outside Radio City Music Hall June 8 in a call for union benefits.
Tara Rubin and Bernard Telsey

Following calls for a union contract and support from performers and members of the Broadway community, theatre casting directors will rally outside Radio City Music Hall June 8.

The 9 AM rally will take place during rehearsals for the Tony Awards, which will be held at the venue June 11. Casting directors from such shows as Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen are expected to attend.

Casting directors released a statement in May outlining their case for a union contract. Despite joining Teamster Local 817 last year, they are left without health insurance and retirement plans from their employers.

“We are the only employees on Broadway who do not have healthcare or a pension. It's Tony season and our productions are being celebrated, but we are being overlooked,” stated Tara Rubin of Tara Rubin Casting.

The Broadway League responded to the casting directors’ requests, noting, “Casting directors that are owners or employees of casting companies, however, are not employees of our shows. Like other vendors such as advertising agencies, accountants and lawyers, whose collaborations we also value, casting companies are engaged as independent contractors; they are separate businesses with their own employees and typically work on more than one show at a time within and outside our industry.”

A number of Broadway performers, including War Paint Tony nominees Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole, Indecent’s Katrina Lenk, and SpongeBob-bound Lilli Cooper, have voiced their support on social media with the hashtage #FairnessforCasting.
 
RELATED:
Latest News
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!