The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has voted 80/20 to approve a referendum ballot increasing dues and fees. If accepted by members, base membership dues will increase from $100 to $130 per year, and initiation fees will also rise from $1,356 to $2,085 annually. In addition, the proposed referendum also includes an increase fee on earnings up to $200,000 from 1.85 to 1.95 percent, with those bringing home over $200,000 annually facing a more substantial increase in work dues from 0.5 to 1.0 percent. While SAG’s operations have been streamlined and spending curtailed by the Guild’s leadership in recent years, including the downsizing of branch offices and staff cuts, the Guild has still been operating in the red for most of the past 12 years. Their previous dues increases were in 1987 and 1999. This proposed increase would add approximately $7.3 million a year to SAG’s $50 million a year operating budget. "With these resources, we can secure our fiscal health, significantly enhance member services and add exceptional leverage to our negotiations with the producers," said SAG president Melissa Gilbert and secretary/treasurer James Cromwell in a joint statement. They also say the enhanced revenue would allow the union to modernize neglected infrastructure and complete cost-saving and member-service efforts, including work underway to enable members to more thoroughly track residuals and provide online casting. Ballots were mailed to all SAG members on May 7 and are due back on May 28. If the dues increase is approved by the SAG membership with a simple majority vote, it will go into effect during the next dues period, which is in November.

In an effort to keep the industry working, the negotiating committee for the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has offered the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), ABC, CBS, and NBC a one-year agreement similar to the contract they recently signed with SAG. "The companies’ current three-year offer is simply unacceptable. It would mean more cuts in health benefits and does not address any of the major issues of these negotiations," said Daniel Petrie Jr., president of WGA. "The companies have offered nothing for writers in reality and nonfiction television, nothing in animation, nothing in DVDs or Internet sales." Petrie also says the WGA has requested that the companies provide information supporting their statements regarding the profitability of theatrical motion pictures, but the companies have refused to supply any data to support their assertion that nine out of 10 films do not break even. "They haven’t even defined 'break even,’" says Petrie. As far as the health fund is concerned, WGA says they will need $43 million in additional monies for their Industry Health Fund, while the producers are offering only $10.6 million over the next three years. According to the WGA, the producers have also not yet offered a change in the residuals formula that was established for DVD and videocassette revenues. The two groups have mutually agreed to resume negotiations in full session on June 1.

Baby Wants Candy recently returned to Chicago from a visit to Asia where they served as "Improv Ambassadors." Hot off the success of last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Fest run, the group performed in collaboration with the Arts House in Singapore and launched the art of improvisation into the country. "We are truly honored to be invited to be the representative of this wonderful art form so far away from home," says Baby Wants Candy member Bob Kulhan. "It is an amazing feeling to get the opportunity to travel the world and pass the skill of improvisation to others." Company members Robert Dassie, Ali Davis, Kulhan, Rachael Mason, Al Samuels, musical director Brian Morris and director Nick Kanal performed the evenings of March 29 –April 4, while teaching a series of improvisation workshops during the day.

Steep Theatre Company will reopen this June after a nine-month hiatus. Like several of their Wrigleyville neighbors, they ran afoul with the PPA police last year and were just able to obtain the valuable papers this last month. "We spent much of the last year working with the city to secure a Place of Public Amusement License for our theatre," said company member Peter Moore. "We are delighted to be back on stage working on a script that allows us to pick up where we left off after an extremely successful 2003 season." Steep closed last season with well-received productions of Richard Dresser’s Below the Belt and Harold Pinter’s The Hothouse and will open their 2004 season with Jack Gilhooley’s The Time Trial, May 27-June 26.

The wrecking ball is temporarily on hold for the Loop Theatre, allowing programming to continue past the expected date. Originally scheduled for demolition next month, the City now doesn’t anticipate selling the land to a developer until January 2005 and will continue using the space for arts related events until later this year. "Since we opened in August 2003, the Loop Theatre has both provided performing space to nomadic theatre companies and drawn diverse audiences," says Department of Cultural Affairs commissioner Lois Weisberg. "We’re excited to continue to make good use of this transitional space and strengthen our contribution to the vibrant theatre district." Included in the additional line-up until December are CIF Sketch, Hook and Mouth Productions, Nomenil Theatre Company, greasy joan & company, 500 Clown and Hell in a Handbag.

Thanks to the teamwork of 3M and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre stands the chance of getting a free tune-up. The two groups have launched a contest called "Protecting America’s Treasures," which allows on-line voters to choose a winner from 20 historical sites, including the Auditorium. 3M will then treat the interiors of five winning locations with a variety of their preserving and protecting Scotchgard products. Voting began May 3 and continues through the end of the month. To cast your ballot (in favor of a Chi-town landmark, of course), visit www.scotchgard.com/nationaltrust

And finally, the Chicago Sun-Times has named their list of Chicago’s 100 Most Powerful Women and topping the arts category was none other than mayoral mate Maggie Daley. Daley’s friend and collaborator (and commissioner of the Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs) Lois Weisberg pulled up second. The rest of the top 10 was dominated by theatre powerhouses, including Steppenwolf artistic director Martha Lavey, artistic director and founder of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre Barbara Gaines, Goodman artistic associate and Lookingglass ensemble member Mary Zimmerman and founding executive director of the Black Ensemble Theatre Jackie Taylor. Good company, indeed.

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