Actors Jam Meeting to Seek Higher Pay for Tours More than 350 Actors" Equity members packed a union hall and overflow room on Friday to demonstrate visibly their concern about lower salaries for musical theater performers on national tours, a source of intensifying frustration that has led Equity leaders to schedule a town hall meeting with members on Jan. 27. At issue is the increasing number of musical tours using Equity contracts with weekly salaries in the range of $700 to $1,100 - far less than the full production contracts that pay actors $1,800 a week, as well as a more generous per diem benefit. While several blockbuster musicals like "Wicked" and "The Lion King" still use the full production contracts, once the standard, for tours, more shows - the Tony Award winners "Memphis" and "Chicago" among them - now use so-called tiered contracts and short-term engagement agreements that pay the lower rates. A firestorm began on Twitter and Facebook late last month as Equity members began criticizing the proposed tiered contracts for forthcoming tours of the Broadway hits "Kinky Boots" (which would pay a minimum of $976) and "Newsies" ($1,091). Equity leaders quickly scheduled the Jan. 27 town-hall meeting, but some actors called for a big turnout at the East Coast membership meeting on Friday to raise the issue during a brief open discussion period. "Newsies" on Broadway; a road production is in the works. According to five Equity members who attended Friday's meeting, the comments were cordial, coming mostly from members of a new group, ACT: Actors Coming Together, formed to bring concerns about tour issues to Equity leadership. The meeting Friday was closed to nonmembers; the five Equity members spoke over the weekend on condition of anonymity because Equity leaders had asked members not to discuss the confidential meeting with reporters. "Nothing was resolved - we'll see what happens at the town hall - but we made clear to Equity leaders that we want them to do everything they can to work with tour producers to improve the salaries, per diems and other financial conditions for actors on the road," said one Equity member, an actor who has worked on a tiered contract. It was a positive meeting, because so many union members are becoming more involved on the issues. Producers defend using lower-paying contracts, noting that the box office returns guaranteed from the tour theaters are not enough to ensure that tours will be profitable or break even if they use full production contracts. Producers say these guaranteed payments have not increased significantly in years, even as touring costs have risen steadily. Even if musicals are big moneymakers on Broadway, as "Kinky Boots" and "Newsies" are, the touring versions are separate productions with their own budgets and investors. Having a Broadway hit does not mean that the profits from New York are used to help finance the tour. The tiered contracts were introduced in 2004 as a way to persuade producers to mount more Equity tours of musicals instead of tours that employed non-Equity actors. Those present at the Friday meeting said that no member urged Equity leaders to reject the "Kinky Boots" and "Newsies" contracts outright. Equity must sign off on contracts, but the union is limited in its options if tour producers meet specified terms and qualifications, which are in effect until 2015. Nicholas Wyman, the president of Equity and a veteran musical actor, declined on Sunday to discuss Equity's stance on the contract concerns, citing the meeting's confidentiality. "Despite the passion some members feel, it was a courteous and respectful meeting, and we're delighted to have member participation on this," Mr. Wyman said in an interview. He attended the meeting but did not speak himself.