LEE COUNTY, Fla. — The Hollywood actors and writers strike could bring a lot of reruns to television and fewer movies to the big screen unless it’s resolved soon.

The strike has many theatergoers asking if local theaters that employ actors could also be impacted.

Sam Arlen is an actor at Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre and said that many of his friends are focused on the strike.

“My circles are a lot of actors and artists and it’s what everyone is talking about,” Arlen said.

He is currently performing in The Little Mermaid at Broadway Palm and while he’s not a union actor, he said he supports the writers and actors strike.

“I certainly am supporting it. I think it’s important for us to stand together as artists,” Arlen stated.

However, Broadway Palm and The Florida Repertory Theatre do not employ union actors. So any threat of a stage actor strike would not impact them.

Artistic Director Greg Longenhagen is a member of the Actors Equity Union, which represents stage actors. He doesn’t believe his union will be pulled into the strike affecting screen actors.

“I don’t have the same fear for stage actors. They are very aware of how fragile theaters are right now,” Longenhagen stated.

He explained that COVID-19 left theaters empty for months and that many are still struggling.

“We are seeing prominent regional theaters in this United States shutting down and stopping programming because they simply can’t afford to do it,” he said.

And that would leave actors on the stage and off the picket line.

“I think that the union and the union members are smart enough to realize that hey, the last thing that we want to do is cripple anybody out there financially,” Longenhagen concluded.

Touring Broadway shows coming to Barbara B. Mann also employ Actors Equity Union members, which is not part of the strike shutting down Hollywood.

The Actors Equity was formed back in 1913 and today has about 51,000 members.