LOVE 99 is a feature-length documentary following the lives of 9 actors in the Los Angeles 99-seat theatre scene as they fight for their passion during tumultuous times.

 

Filming over a long weekend in September 2015, Director Veronica Brady set out to follow working actors, all deeply committed to the intimate theatre scene in LA, and document the unique challenges they currently face.

 

A few months before filming began, Actors’ Equity Association - the actors’ union - announced it would terminate the contract governing and protecting how and when their members could work in the nearly 200 intimate theatres spread across the city.  The union would enforce the dissolution of the “99-seat waiver contract,” as its known, against the wishes of its members, who had voted overwhelmingly to keep the contract in place.

 

Protests began. Heated closed-door meetings took place as members struggled to respond to their union. The adventurous, though often underrated, LA 99-seat theatre community was suddenly faced with the notion they would no longer be able to work under the protection they once had.

 

LA actors and their theatres are accustomed to creating bold new plays, where taking artistic risks has become the rule, not the exception.  Intimate theatre in LA, free from commercial pressure, offers many artists a creative base as they navigate the ‘business of acting’ in the film and television world.

 

The loss of such artistic freedom quickly galvanized the community into action.  Surprising even themselves, they fought back.  LOVE 99 drops right down into the middle of this storm and gives the viewer unprecedented access into the wild, joyful, and passionate life of theatre artists in LA and exposes what they will do to protect their creative freedom.

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LOVE 99 is produced by Planet Grande Pictures, a 7-time Emmy Award-winning documentary production company, in collaboration with Hybrid Collective.