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Triple Tony winner and Broadway icon Patti LuPone officially quit the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) on October 17. The veteran actor posted an announcement regarding her exit from AEA, stating:
“Quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about. I gave up my Equity card; no longer part of that circus. Figure it out.”
Describing it as "a circus" union, LuPone stated that AEA accepted her resignation, telling her that if she ever wanted to return, she would be approved. She added,
“And it’s the perfect reason I withdrew from Equity. Fifty years to this year … I’ve been a card-carrying member of Equity, and they don’t know who I am basically. They just said, ‘Fine, but if you want to rejoin, we’re going to have to approve you.’”
Patti LuPone reportedly left the AEA following a controversy which last week when Hadestown star Lillias White reprimanded a deaf audience member from the stage. White misunderstood that the audience member was recording the show. However, the individual revealed that she was using a closed captioning device.
The Lillias White controversy became a deja-vu moment for LuPone, as she similarly had criticized a theatre-goer for using a flash camera in 2009, during a perforfance of Gypsy.
After the Hadestown incident, LuPone criticized theatergoers for not caring about the rules. Patti LuPone added that the AEA has never supported any actor and that she did not want to give them more money. She even hinted that she might not go back to the stage again.
Meanwhile, the veteran actor won’t be able to perform in regional and touring productions operating under non-Equity contracts, alongside concert productions and cabarets.
More details on the Equity card
The Equity card is a proof that an individual is a member of the Actors’ Equity Association of the United States or Equity in the United Kingdom. The actor is eligible to join the union by being under an Equity contract.
An actor can apply for membership if they are a member of the sister unions in the performing arts, including the American Guild of Musical Artists, the American Guild of Variety Artists, and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
The Equity Card can also be acquired from the Equity Membership Candidate Program (EMC). The program allows actors to work in Equity productions and they are eligible for membership after working for 50 weeks in theatres. After becoming a member, an actor must pay $118 in yearly dues along with working dues.
Membership comes with benefits including minimum wages, health insurance, pension, and workers’ compensation insurance. Members are not allowed to perform in a non-Equity production without being permitted by Equity.
Future projects of Patti LuPone
Patti LuPone is currently busy with her film and television roles, stating that she "won’t be doing eight shows a week ever again" since it is impossible for her now.
The actor most recently appeared on Broadway in last season’s Company, which won her third Tony Award for the performance (she previously won for Gypsy and 1980’s Evita)
The 73-year-old will next be seen on the Netflix fantasy film, The School for Good and Evil, scheduled to premiere on October 19. This will be followed by the upcoming series American Horror Story: NYC, which will be released on FX the very same day.
