Kate Shindle to End Run as Actors’ Equity Association President

Kate Shindle will step down as president of Actors’ Equity Association on May 23, ending her third and final term as the top officer of the union representing actors and stage managers. Her decision not to run again was reported by Michael Paulson in the New York Times.

First elected in 2015, Shindle guided AEA through the Covid pandemic, a time when its members largely went without stage work. Broadway theaters shut down in March 2020 and did not reopen until August 2021. She also presided over a time of expanding interest in membership: Last year, performers in Drunk Shakespeare NYC voted to join AEA, as did the exotic dancers at Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood.

“All I ever wanted to be was an actor, and it really feels like time to refocus on my own career,” Shindle said in her interview with the Times. The AEA presidency is an unpaid position that requires a tremendous time commitment. According to the Times, Shindle has worked so little as an actor that she has not even qualified for AEA’s health insurance coverage, which requires members to work a certain number of days to receive benefits.

Shindle is the latest in a series of industry leaders to announce her departure, including Charlotte St. Martin of the Broadway League. That means the next time AEA sits down at the table with the League to negotiate a new production contract (the present one is in effect through September 2025), both organizations will be headed by new people.

In a farewell message posted to her Instagram, Shindle wrote, “I am always, always rooting for our members, and will be cheering for the next president to succeed in new and different ways.”