our mission
Equity Next is a worker-led, participatory movement of stage managers and actors who want to transform Actors' Equity Association into one capable of meeting the many challenges that face us in our industry today.
We love our union, and want it to fulfill its potential in protecting and advancing the careers of its members. Whether it be stagnant wages, racial and gendered inequality, a precarious healthcare system, an exhausting if not outright dangerous quality of work, or the neglect of stage managers, our union has dragged its feet on keeping up with what its members need. However, Equity Next acknowledges that we, the members, are the union, thus none of this is set in stone. We, from a wide array of experiences and
identities, have a voice and the power to advocate for negotiating the quality of our working lives as theater makers.
Equity Next believes that in speaking together, as theater workers, we can demand the basic dignities and privileges afforded to us by being members of a union. We believe in the power of organized labor, member-to-member. We believe in worker solidarity, from the bottom up.
Our movement exists to educate and empower theater workers, in turn, helping them to strengthen the bonds of collectivity necessary for building a more equitable industry that works for everyone. One aspect of this will be working with council members new and old to engage in a transformation of fundamental organizing principles, bringing a contemporary set of values to how we win. At the same time, our mission recognizes a union is only as strong as its “rank and file” members, and in this way, intends to work both within and in addition to formal union mechanisms to raise the level of informed engagement of all workers.
We want to work with as many folks across our industry as possible in order to modernize and future-proof our laboring. We have no enemies except exploitation, oppression, and undignified conditions of work.
Equity Next is you. Equity Next is us.
