Source: http://sendroffbaruch.com/twittergate-rethinking-the-casting-director-contract/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 04:42:03+00:00

Document:
productions due to the economic downturn and others had swapped out large-cast musicals for smaller-cast plays (thus reducing her employment opportunities). She was starting to fear that she would end up paying for COBRA coverage as she had not hit the minimum number of Equity2-required work-weeks in order to qualify for the Equity plan,3 so every audition suddenly seemed crucially important.
After a few minutes, the casting director of The New Musical poked her head out into the hallway, called the actress into the audition room, and introduced her to the director and choreographer who sat a bit imposingly behind the folding table that separated the actors’ playing space from the production team’s side of the room. The actress took a moment to compose herself and then launched into the monologue on her sides, whereupon the casting director picked up her Blackberry, opened Twitterberry,4 and typed, “What in the world would possess her to wear such an ugly skirt to an audition? Note to actors: dress better!” This posting on Twitter, often called a “tweet,” replaced her last update, which read, “Wow. Pitch problems much? My ears are BLEEDING.” She then began to respond to the angry posts coming in from actors who followed her tweets, never noticing the comments about her tweeting that were popping up on theatre-oriented chatboards like Talkin’ Broadway5 and Broadway World.6 Nor did she know that the switchboard at Equity was lighting up with complaints from Equity members about the casting director’s recent tweets.
A few blocks away, the producer of The New Musical was in the middle of a marketing meeting, plotting the marketing strategy for the upcoming production with the press agent and representatives from the ad agency and the marketing agency. Every detail of the strategy was carefully laid out: when ads would be placed; what kind of internet presence the marketing agency would craft; what press angles the press agent would pursue; and what information about the production would be carefully avoided. They were sure there would be some unexpected bumps in the road—there always were—but they were fairly confident in their strategy.
The first unexpected bump came a few minutes later when The New York Times called to ask them how they felt about their casting director “Twittering” during auditions.
directors. Part I of this article discusses the factual background of “Twittergate.” Part II looks at the role of the casting director in the casting process. Part III analyzes the two contracts impacting the producer’s relationship with a casting director: the collectively bargained agreement binding the producer and Equity and the individually negotiated agreement between the producer and the casting director. Finally, Part IV argues for a new approach to casting director agreements, proposing new language in both the Equity collective bargaining agreements and individually negotiated casting director agreements.
responsibilities associated with bringing a production to the stage.Billy Butler, the composer/producer of Gay Bride of Frankenstein, engaged Daryl Eisenberg Casting (“DEC”) to serve as casting director for the NYMF production of the musical.
Eisenberg composed her tweets only during breaks when no actors were in the room and virtually impossible that the production team was on a break at 7:01 AM when auditions had begun only a minute earlier.
Eisenberg’s protestations notwithstanding, it is difficult to see how her tweets help aspiring actors when Eisenberg’s followers cannot hear the “appropriate song choice” or the “def toxic” voice to which she (or Spielberg) is reacting. More importantly, the auditioning actor does not actually receive the feedback.
actors (and themselves) from the abuse of the casting director’s informal power.
to negotiate for themselves terms and conditions of engagement in excess of the minimum guaranteed terms. In that case, the producer69 and the creative team member’s agent will negotiate a contract rider setting forth those terms in excess of union-mandated minimums.
Therefore, the general manager, in nearly all circumstances, negotiates and signs the casting director’s contract as an authorized agent of the producer producing the production.
The current Equity Production Contract went into effect in June 2008 and expires in September 2011.75 Although it is now closer to its expiration date than its commencement date, the Broadway League and Equity have not agreed upon the final language in the renewal contract;76 it may expire without the language of the CBA ever being finally agreed upon by the parties.
Equity contract due to the tweeting. Nor did Eisenberg, or the producer, have any obligation to meet with Equity, schedule additional EPAs, or resolve the situation to Equity’s satisfaction.
producer from a casting director who lacks respect for custom and tradition?
producer’s reliance upon tacit assumptions and industry norms to regulate the conduct of auditions may no longer be wise.
setting forth the casting director’s obligations is so vague that proving a breach of those obligations would require a showing of total failure on the part of the casting director. Under any of these casting director contracts, Eisenberg’s actions in Twittergate would almost certainly not have risen to the level of breach unless a producer could prove that by tweeting while overseeing auditions, Eisenberg did not “cast the show,” a difficult argument to make when casting pursuant to vague industry contracts means little more than seeking out the right performers for review by creative team members with casting authority. Producers and their proxies—general managers—have allowed themselves to occupy an awkward position: theatre has ceased to be an informal culture regarding casting director’s rights, but it has remained a handshake culture regarding their specific obligations.
intended to benefit Equity, Equity is only an incidental beneficiary, which has no privity and thus no potential of enforcing its regulations against casting directors, only against producers.
in contractual structure that allowed it to occur without any party having real contractual recourse.
obligation initially guaranteed by another, is firmly enshrined in contract law.127 And insofar as Equity is concerned, it is a winwin, as delegation does not typically relieve the original contractor (in this case, the Producer) of primary liability for the delegated obligation.128 Instead, as the delegated duty is owed to Equity (the “obligee”), Equity will be transformed by the delegation into an intended beneficiary with rights to enforce the contract directly against the casting director and the producer.
actor’s agent. In addition, the Equity Principal Audition Procedures should be expanded to include a prohibition on Equity audition monitors and staff discussing audition content at all, with such prohibition continuing during the period of auditions and for a reasonable time thereafter.130 These proposed contractual modifications, once delegated pursuant to point one above, thus impose a higher level of confidentiality on all parties.
The recommended confidentiality provision could prove controversial. In addition to casting directors’ unwillingness to be told what they can say and when they can say it, the extent to which confidentiality agreements will be upheld by courts is uncertain and jurisdiction-dependent.131 However, the mere presence of confidentiality clauses in contracts, even if sometimes unenforceable, serves an important purpose: it makes people think twice before talking and therefore may have a powerful deterrent effect on bad behavior. Perhaps it will also make people think twice before tweeting.
Procedural challenges will make the phasing-in of additional language a somewhat slow process. Although the Production Contract is up for renewal in 2011, and thus new language could be added and enforced fairly soon,132 other collective bargaining agreements, like the New Orleans, L.A. Theatres (NOLA) Rulebook133 and the Western Civic Light Opera (WCLO) Rulebook134 will not expire until 2013 and 2014, respectively. Therefore, it will take several years, at least, for new language clarifying and enhancing current practice to become standard Equity-wide.
artistic directors serve as their own casting directors so, once again, subcontracting language would not apply.
strong political constituency that could stop producers and Equity from enacting new rules is one of the prices casting directors pay for their traditionally unregulated status.
• Complying with all obligations required of the producer under Production Contract Rule 5136 and delegated to the casting director.
penumbras and emanations of a vague contract.
an independent contractor, as they are not obligations found in an employee contract.
though the chances of the indemnity actually protecting the producer may be small.
First, regarding the observance of contractual formalities, the confidentiality clause proposed herein will be a material term of an independent contractor’s engagement contract (as opposed to a stand-alone confidentiality agreement). Therefore, the apposite question will be whether the contract as a whole evidences mutual assent, consideration, and lacks any defenses to formation, not whether there is adequate consideration for the confidentiality clause itself. As contracts between casting directors and producers become more heavily negotiated questions as to whether the basic formalities have been complied with become more remote.
circumstances. In fact, the term of confidentiality could probably be shortened further; three months after an audition, no one will be marginally interested in a story about something that happened in an audition room months before.
Third, overbreadth. The language of the confidentiality clause must be drafted in such a way that it does not protect as confidential more than is legitimately protectable. As this confidentiality clause aims for specificity, requiring a casting director to maintain confidentiality only as to the identity of the auditioner and the content of auditions, overbreadth should not present a significant problem.
ascertainable by the public. Accordingly, such information should not fall within the scope of the confidentiality clause.
Finally, the clause must not relate to illegal subject matter or be contrary to public policy. These issues are not raised by the confidentiality clause proposed here. The primary public policy concern raised by confidentiality clauses is confidential protection so broad that it limits the ability of the bound party to work. No such circumstances exist here.
On the whole, a confidentiality clause will almost certainly be enforceable in a casting director contract. The inclusion of this type of clause in earlier casting contracts would have prevented Twittergate from happening (or would have made it an obvious breach of contract). The inclusion of this clause now would serve to prevent future Twittergates or other similar events that serve to humiliate auditioning actors and blindside producers.
As stated in Part III, only two of the casting director contracts reviewed for this article included any kind of termination language, and that language provided for termination in extremely limited circumstances (illness, production suspension, or pre-initial production buyout). Termination clauses including differing rights and obligations dependent on whether the termination was for-cause or without cause should become standard inclusions in the casting director’s negotiated contract.
that a different casting director would better serve the project; a change in the production schedule which makes the producer uncomfortable about potential conflicts in the casting director’s schedule. Good reasons exist to limit this buyout right to the period prior to the initial commercial production. Otherwise, once the casting director has cast the initial production, the producer will have access to the casting director’s records from casting sessions and will be able to utilize those records to cast those actors as suitable replacements in an open-ended production.148 The temptation to buy out an expensive casting director and replace her with a less expensive one could be irresistible to some producers.
of confidentiality could cut to the very heart of the contract’s purpose.
safety mechanism or simply to appease the ghosts said to haunt every theatre, no one will quite admit). It is a world where rock music has just begun to make a significant mark in the last fifteen years.154 And it is a world where producers and Equity have been slow to require that casting director contracts both accurately reflect the casting director’s role relating to the production and protect the people being cast.
Twittergate was perhaps a shot across the bow of theatre’s traditional way of doing things. Those traditional norms which had long protected both the producer’s right to control his show (and when and how information about it becomes public) and the working actor’s union-protected rights to audition in a professional environment only work when they are universally shared.
contract is more than inadequate, it’s one-sided, granting the casting director’s rights concretely and explicitly, but in return asking for little to no specificity with regard to obligations.
public disclosure. Equity and producers must formalize effective ways of protecting their productions and the actors they employ. While catty backstabbing and gossip may be the price that public figures pay for their fame, it should not be a price also paid by anonymous, struggling actors who spend their days auditioning, their nights catering, and most of their lives waiting for a big break.
international organization of performing arts unions.”).
covered employment to qualify for the succeeding twelve months of coverage).
6 See generally Broadway Message Board, BROADWAY WORLD, http://www.
7 See Dave Itzkoff, Casting Director Tweets at Tryouts, to Negative Reviews, N.Y.
(Aug. 31, 2009, 1:59 PM), http://www.nymf.org/Story-363.html.
11 DECasting, TWITTER (Aug. 12, 2009, 10:54 AM), http://twitter.com/decasting.
audition room prior to this date, which perhaps prompted her initial tweet.
12 Id. (Aug. 12, 2009, 7:01 AM).
13 Id. (Aug. 12, 2009, 7:07 AM).
14 Id. (Aug. 12, 2009, 7:41 AM).
15 Id. (Aug. 12, 2009, 12:48 PM).
16 Id. (Aug. 12, 2009, 1:02 PM).
17 Id. (Aug. 12, 2009, 1:46 PM).
casting director’s knowledge of things Constitutional, res ipsa loquitor.
19 Id. (Aug. 12, 2009, 3:05 PM).
21 DECasting, TWITTER (Aug. 12, 2009, 3:41 PM), http://twitter.com/decasting.
22 Id. (Aug. 12, 2009, 12:39 PM).
23 Id. (Aug. 12, 2009, 12:47 PM).
24 Chana Spielberg, (ChChChChana) on Twitter, IMAGESHACK, http://img268.
timestamp of her tweets is no longer available.
(Aug. 13, 2009, 12:01 AM) [hereinafter A Casting Director Calls Out].
35 See A Casting Director Calls Out, supra note 31.
feed. What is Following?, TWITTER, http://support.twitter.com/entries/14019-what-isfollowing.
and their updates will appear in your personal timeline on your Twitter homepage.” Id.
38 Daryl Eisenberg, DECasting on Twitter, TWITTER, http://twitter.com/decasting (Aug.
TWITTER (Aug. 12, 2009, 9:46AM), http://twitter.com/decasting.
43 DECasting, TWITTER (Aug. 13, 2009, 9:52 AM), http://twitter.com/decasting.
44 Id. (Aug. 14, 2009, 10:58 AM).
46 DECasting, TWITTER (Aug. 13, 2009, 6:29 PM), http://twitter.com/decasting.
47 Dave Itzkoff, Should You Twitter at an Audition?, ARTSBEAT BLOG, NYTIMES (Aug.
CHOREOGRAPHERS SOC’Y, INC. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT (Sept. 1, 2008).
DRAMATISTS GUILD, APPROVED PRODUCTION CONTRACT FOR PLAYS, Art. 8, § 8.01(a).
51 Interview with Marc Routh, Broadway Producer, in New York, N.Y. (Jan. 7, 2010).
personal shoppers and nothing greater.
See A Casting Director Calls Out, supra note 31.
component/content/article/45 (last visited Dec. 14, 2010).
Roundabout is one of his major functions).
56 Casting director agreements are discussed in detail in Part III.B of this Article.
57 Casting Director Contract C, 1993 Off-Broadway Play (on file with author).
Final Thought]; see also infra Part III.
http://www.actorsequity.org/CastingCall/castingcallhome.asp (last visited Dec. 14, 2010).
to have attitude issues. They’re not even brought into the audition process.”).
61 See id. at 129.
Broadway League (long known as the “League of American Theatres and Producers”).
BROADWAYLEAGUE, http://broadwayleague.com (last visited Feb. 13, 2011).
PRODUCERS, http://offbroadway.org (last visited Feb. 13, 2011).
known as LORT. LEAGUE OF RESIDENT THEATRES, http://www.lort.org (last visited Feb.
67 Casting directors are neither unionized nor considered to be on the creative team.
costume), orchestrator, musical director and arrangers.
LANGLEY, THEATRE MANAGEMENT 100 (2007).
rulebooks/Equity_DTP_Production_Rulebook_04-08.pdf (expired June 28, 2008).
74 See supra note 68.
75 See PRODUCTION CONTRACT, supra note 73.
choreographer, or dance captain to be present at auditions for dancers).
96 PRODUCTION CONTRACT, supra note 73, Rule 36.
97 See Equity Principal Audition Procedures, supra note 34.
99 PRODUCTION CONTRACT, supra note 73, Rule 5(E)(1)–(3).
100 Casting Director Contract A, 1983 Broadway Play (on file with author).
negotiated post-1995 (Contracts E, F, G and H) include agency clauses.
102 Casting Director Contracts A, B, C and D (on file with author).
104 Casting Director Contracts B, C and D (on file with author).
105 Casting Director Contract B (on file with author).
106 Casting Director Contracts E, F, G and H (on file with author).
107 Casting Director Contracts E, F and H (on file with author).
producer, to author (Feb. 3, 2011) (on file with author).
109 Casting Director Contract A, supra note 100.
110 Casting Director Contract B, 1992 Off-Broadway Play (on file with author).
111 Casting Director Contract C, supra note 57.
112 Casting Director Contract D, 1994 Off-Broadway Musical (on file with author).
113 Casting Director Contract E, 1997 Broadway Musical (on file with author).
114 Casting Director Contract F, 2007 Developmental Musical (on file with author).
115 Casting Director Contract G, 2008 Developmental Play (on file with author).
116 Casting Director Contract H, 2010 Broadway Musical (on file with author).
117 E-mail from Marc Routh, producer, to author (Feb. 2, 2011) (on file with author).
118 Casting Director Contract G, supra note 115.
119 Casting Director Contract F, supra note 114.
120 See, e.g., IP Co., LLC v. Cellnet Tech., Inc., 660 F. Supp. 2d 1351, 1356 (N.D. Ga.
enforce it, but the right to sue is freely transferable.”).
121 RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF CONTRACTS § 302 (1981).
Rock’s production of his play, Unnatural Acts.
(last visited Feb. 13, 2011).
123 See supra note 122 and accompanying text.
124 See supra Part III.
125 PRODUCTION CONTRACT, supra note 73, Rule 51.
principal actors no longer in a show to be removed. Id. Rule 7(E)(2).
127 RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF CONTRACTS § 318 (1981); see also 29 RICHARD A.
128 PRODUCTION CONTRACT, supra note 73, Rule 51.
producer’s casting personnel. See Equity Principal Auditions Procedures, supra note 34.
131 See infra Part IV.B.3 (discussing confidentiality clauses in further detail).
negotiating to be done, changes can likewise be immediate.
ORLEANS AREA THEATRES (Jan. 3, 2011).
THE WESTERN CIVIC LIGHT OPERA (WCLO) AGREEMENT (May 31, 2010).
135 See supra notes 106–13 and accompanying text.
136 Or similar rules in other Equity CBAs.
Agency Agreement (Feb. 20, 2007) (on file with author).
138 Litigation is nearly unheard of in theatre due to its high costs.
PRODUCTION CONTRACT, supra note 73, Rule 4.
Enforceable?, 25 WM.MITCHELL L. REV. 627 (1999).
142 Id. at 639 (providing a partial list of state requirements for enforcement).
Interpersonal Privacy, 45 WAKE FOREST L. REV. 689, 711 (2010).
confidentiality provision in a prenuptial agreement).
confidentiality clause protecting sperm donor identity to be valid).
147 Henry Hope X-Ray Prods., Inc. v. Marron Carrel, Inc., 674 F.2d 1336 (9th Cir.
producer and the theatre in which they are housed.
149 See Hodak v. Madison Capital Mgmt., LLC, 348 F. App’x 83 (6th Cir. 2009).
may come within twenty-four hours after the dismissal. Id. Rule 59(A)(2).
ineligible for rehire) (last visited Feb. 13, 2011).
152 348 F. App’x 83 (6th Cir. 2009).
153 Hodak, 348 F. App’x at 91.
wnet/broadway/index.html (last visited Feb. 13, 2011).
I Want (NBC television broadcast 2007); How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?

References: Art. 8
 § 8
 v. 
 § 302
 § 318
 v. 
 v.