By Jason Epperson

Actors’ Equity has announced that it has arrived at a new Chicago Area Theatre (CAT) agreement with the Producers’ Association of Chicago Area Theatres (PACT). The agreement covers productions until 2022, increasing salaries from 10 percent to 43 percent over the course of the four-year contract. PACT theaters operating under the CAT agreement include most Chicago union theaters. Court, Northlight, and Goodman operate under a separate LORT contract, and other theaters (such as Drury Lane) have their own agreements with Equity.

Equity says that new provisions will ensure that at least minimum wage is paid during rehearsal (which has not always been the case at smaller Equity theaters). “Our focus in this negotiation was two-fold: money and contracts,” said Dev Kennedy, Central Regional Vice President and a member of the negotiating team. “To that end, we were able to achieve ratio increases and tier increases for many of our CAT theatres. This means more money in our members’ pockets and more opportunities to work in Chicago.”

Other changes include increases in overtime rates, media fees, and dance captain pay, as well as protections for stage managers who take on additional duties and the inclusion of anti-harassment language.