PITTSBURGH—The Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre had planned on live-streaming a performance of their current show The History Boys over the Internet on August 15. In a press release from August 4 they announced that the live performance and live stream had been green-lit by the play’s authors and the unions representing participating theatre practitioners involved in the show. But, on Wednesday, August 12 Stephanie Riso, operations director at PICT sent out an e-mail stating that the live-streaming had been cancelled due to objections from Actors’ Equity and AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists).

The play was to be streamed on PICT’s “live and in person live and live and online” (LIPLO) web portal. The software was developed by PICT co-founder and operations director Stephanie Riso in conjunction with Alex Geis of 21 Productions and had been run with success during a cabaret series in 2007-2008. In their press release announcing the streaming, PICT mentions they had the support of AFTRA, but AEA was not mentioned.

In her e-mail to staff and supporters notifying them of the cancellation Riso stated that conflicts between the two unions over who had jurisdiction over the stream, and therefore a claim on any profits, led to the cancellation. The stream “became a liability when the two unions could not agree to move forward together, and one was not going to act without the others consent.”

Riso trumpeted the advantages of adding an additional revenue stream to theatres and called on interested parties to contact AEA and AFTRA to “start a meaningful dialogue” to allow streaming to continue.

Stage Directions is contacting AEA and AFTRA to see if they have a statement about this event, and will post updates as soon as we get them.

 For more info about Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, please visit: www.picttheatre.org. 

Security Check. Please enter this code.