League of Resident Theatres

• To promote the general welfare of resident theaters in the U.S. and its territories;
• To promote community interest in and support of resident theaters;
• To encourage and promote sound communications and relations between resident theaters in the U.S. and between resident theaters and the theater-going public;
• To afford resident theaters an opportunity to act for their common purpose and interest;
• • To act in the interest and on behalf of its members in labor relations and related matters;
  • To serve as bargaining agent for its members in bargaining collectively with unions representing employees of its members;
  • To establish and maintain stable and equitable labor relations between its members and unions representing employees of its members;
  • To provide guidance and assistance to its members in administering collective bargaining agreements;
  • If requested by a member, to handle disputes between members and their employees and/or union representatives; and
  • To represent members before government agencies on problems of labor relations.
• To carry on all lawful activities which may directly or indirectly contribute to the accomplishment of such purposes; and
• To communicate with the Federal Government through the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Arts Alliance and to keep those agencies apprised of the needs and status of LORT's membership.[1]

The League of Resident Theatres was formally established on 18 March 1966 by Peter Zeisler, managing director of the Minnesota Theatre Company (a.k.a. the Guthrie Theater), Thomas Fichandler, general manager of Arena Stage, and Morris Kaplan, an attorney. Peter Zeisler was appointed the first president, with Thomas Finchandler as vice president and William Bushnell, manager of Baltimore's Center Stage, as secretary. There were 26 member theaters at the organization's founding. Until then resident theater troupes negotiated individual contracts with Equity; most of them used modifications of commercial theater contracts. In some instances the theaters operated under the terms of Equity's new stock contract, however, resident theater managers have long felt burdened by what they call Equity's "one production" type of contract used on Broadway.[2]

Theaters are categorized into tiers A through D. Tiers B+ through D are determined by the weekly actual box office receipts averaged over the last three complete fiscal years. No theaters can move in or out of Tier "A" (except the transition of Ford's Theatre from "A" to "B").

• Categories and box office receipts are as follows:
  • "B+” $110,000.00 and above
  • "B" $70,000.00 to $109,999.99
  • "C" $45,000.00 to $69,999.99
  • "D" $44,999.99 and below

For some purposes, the "C" category is split into "C-1" and "C-2" based on seating capacity.[3]

There are 75 member theatres listed on the 2018 LORT website:[4]

• Official website