British Actors' Equity Association (original) (raw)
The British Actors' Equity Association (now called Equity) is the British actors' trade union. It was formed in 1930 by a group of West End performers. The users of the union have the greatest range of union fees of any union in Britain.
It is one of the hardest unions to join. Every paid British professional actor should be a member of this union. The reason for placing 'paid' on this is that an unpaid professional (an unpaid actor/crew member in professional production) is different from a paid professional. To further complicate things, you may also be an paid amateur (i.e. involved in a profit-share). Thus, British Equity is the British counterpart of both the American Actors' Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild.