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Reviews are mixed on the promotion of George Ives to the top job in the West Coast office of Actors' Equity-at least if you talk to the producers who will be, figuratively speaking, on the other side of the table.
Ives will replace the retiring Edward Weston as western regional director, moving up from the job of senior business representative, on Sept. 1.
"A terrific choice," said Stephen J. Albert, managing director of the Mark Taper Forum. "He's very fair, very professional, constant in his vigilance for the interests of actors." But he's also "broad-minded" and "able to step back and look at the the big picture." Stan Seiden of the Nederlander Organization expressed similar views.
"A disaster," responded Laura Zucker, chairman of Associated Theatres of Los Angeles, the organization of producers that was at loggerheads with Equity during the recent "Waiver Wars." "(Ives) is extremely resistant to a (mid-sized theater) contract formulated expressly for this community. Without it, there will be a lot of dark theaters, but he looks you straight in the eye and says he doesn't see a problem."
But hold it-Zucker's initial response was given before she was told about one of Ives' self-professed priorities.
In a telephone interview, Ives stressed the importance of developing a new Equity contract to replace the old Hollywood Area Theatre contract, covering theaters in the 100-400-seat range.
"I'm shocked and surprised," said Zucker, when told of what Ives had said. "That would be great. Perhaps we'll find he held other opinions all this time."
"The old contract needs to be looked at in a new light," said Ives. "We'll have to...