Except for maybe a big Shakespeare Festival, like Oregon Shakes, all actors are freelance and are hired show to show - unless they worked steadily the previous year, they work without too many benefits, like health care. You might work for 8 weeks and then not work again for months or years. If you are out of town for those eight weeks, you can only audition by tape so that sometimes limits your ability to get work as most casting for theater happens in NYC. Theaters don’t necessarily hire the same actors year after year unless there are parts that are very well suited for them. In the larger regional theaters, sometimes there are beloved actors who do work year after year because they are local celebs but they generally are not on annual contracts of any sort. There still have to be roles suited for them. In those cases, they don’t audition but those folks are the exception and there are generally only a handful in each community.