Off-Broadway avoids strike with 5-year contract agreement

NEW YORK – Off-Broadway actors and producers have agreed on a new labour contract that boosts performers’ wages, a deal that ensures dozens of New York shows stay open as the holidays approach, from “Shear Madness” to “Avenue Q” and “Dead Poets Society” to “The Fantasticks.”

An agreement between Actors’ Equity Association, which represents actors and stage managers, and the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers was announced Friday. The current four-year contract expired Nov. 6, but it was extended as both sides agreed to keep talking.

The new five-year deal applies only to off-Broadway theatres, which are defined as venues with a seating capacity between 100 and 499 and includes such high-profile nonprofits as The Public Theater, Second Stage Theater and the Atlantic Theater Company, as well as over 100 commercial producers.