Akron’s Rubber City Theatre launched in 2013 to present Shakespeare and other plays from the classic repertoire. Since then, it’s expanded its range to musicals and contemporary plays and changed its name from Rubber City Shakespeare Company
to its current handle to reflect that. It’s moved around in its seven years, but it currently performs — when it’s able to again — in downtown Akron’s Northside district, averaging about half a dozen productions a year.
Although its season is currently on pause for reasons we all know, it’s made a big announcement: It’s just signed a contract with Actors’ Equity, making it the only unionized theater ensemble in Akron and only the fifth in northeast Ohio.
“This is the first step towards our goal of paying artists a living wage and attracting more talent to Northeast Ohio,” says company founder and executive artistic director Dane CT Leasure. “The pandemic’s forced pause helped us clarify our goals for the future, and with this Equity contract we can better support our family of wildly talented artists and storytellers and attract other talent to help us create the innovative and intimate productions that Akron expects from Rubber City Theatre.”
Leasure also says that he and his board of directors are working with the local chapter of IATSE (The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) on a contract with the stagehand labor union.