ACT Member?

[chris325]

So I've been browsing the list of yellow card shows on IATSE's website, and a lot of the department heads on different tours are listed as being an "ACT Member." Anyone know what this organization is?

 

[Footer]

ACT is for people who want to join the IA but do not have a home local. It is pretty common for people who start in the industry touring. A few of my friends in this area have it because for whatever reason the home local did not want to deal with having a member who toured. They pay dues to the international, not a local. They do not have officers or anything like that.

 

[derekleffew]

Not an organization but a classification.

... For theatre tours, it's not really necessary to have an IATSE card when you start out, and by the time you get to the better tours where you do need one, you'll have one. Most entry-level touring jobs frequently hire non-union stagehands, and if the tour is or turns into a union tour, the non-union guys will just pick up ACT cards - basically like an IATSE card that doesn't have any connection to a specific local, allowing you to tour. Some old, hardened stagehands look down on the ACT card ("Anyone Can Tour"), but it is a route that many take when starting their careers. One progression that I've heard of many people doing is to start touring with companies like NETworks and Troika and move your way up until you're touring with the 1st Nationals, which are usually PE'd/PS'd and designed by the same guys who did the Broadway versions of those shows. Then you just keep impressing those bosses until you decide to settle down in New York, and hopefully they like you enough to start giving you jobs on the Broadway shows. ...

 

[danTt]

Associated Crafts and Technicians, or more colloquially, "Anyone can tour". Most ACT members are just out of college, and their local is the international. Most act members these days exist because IATSE allows the touring producers (NETworks, Big league, Troika, etc) to buy people into the union.