Is local non-profit theater over? In crisis? In decline? About to pivot? On the verge of a massive shift? Funding is down down down. Ticket sales too.
Was the pandemic the cause? Or did it hasten changes already in the works pre-pandemic?
What are the remedies? My feed is full of dire threats and serious recommendations. I’ve been collecting these and am sharing some highlights below.
One that resonates deeply with me is…. relevance, the commitment to public good by meeting the actual needs and goals of the local community.
People already believe and understand that one of the most important investments a community can make is in its local arts, music, and culture scene. For instance, they agree that when a community spends some of its tax dollars making sure that activities that connect us, like going to see theater, hear music, or taking painting classes, it leads to better physical health outcomes. If we neglect communities and these arts experiences aren’t available, health outcomes are worse.
Now we must both fulfill that promise and celebrate the role of arts in community outcomes in our communications. (One memorable standout local example in my experience, This is Reading by Lynn Nottage.)
Assuming this occurs, advocacy for a national solution in the form of shifts to foundational support (private and public) will be more resonant to the decision-makers, and more importantly—the public. We need to make the case that theaters (and all arts) are a necessity across the nation, one worthy of our shared support.
What do you think?
Listed in order of publication date, these links should work. If you hit a paywall, you can always try inserting the link here.
The Theater(s)We Need Now
Andy Horwitz
July 1, 2023
CultureBot
“We can argue endlessly about all the things – the details, the specifics and mechanics, all the apparatuses of the system that keeps us in place. We can excavate and unpack the history from Little Theater to today, talk about where things went wrong, overdevelopment, overbuilding, over-professionalization, greed, ambition, venality and pettiness; we can despair about the state of affairs and bemoan the passing of these giant institutions; we can harbor resentment or give in to resignation, we can blame and bluster and rage and complain, we can diagnose the ills and propose cosmetic changes: some new paint, a slightly different version of the same old same old. Or we can question everything, reject the assumptions, reject the limitations of what other people (people in power) say is possible, and propose the impossible, propose to imagine the previously unimaginable and make it manifest in the world. Because that is what art does. That is where the true power lies.”
Theater is in freefall, and the pandemic isn’t the only thing to blame
Peter Marks, Washington Post
July 6, 2023
“The crisis is a perfect storm of bad economic and demographic trends, exacerbated by a change in cultural habits during the pandemic. Experts in theater management say that 25 percent to 30 percent of theater audiences have not returned since the pandemic shutdown of March 2020 that lasted until late 2021. Retrenchment has continued, they say, not so much out of lingering fears of getting sick, but because theater simply receded as a priority as other pastimes filled the gap.”
Gwydion Suilebhan
Facebook Post
July 10, 2023
“I want theater to have a lasting impact on me. I don’t need a diversion. I need systemic change, both for me personally AND for the world. (Again, the theater in question generally does that better than anywhere.) Give me that and I’ll think about coming. Otherwise, I’m probably just going to stay home.
Good luck, theaters. Pivot fast.”
Nonprofit Arts Closings: “Duh.”
Alan Harris
ArtsJournal Blog
July 11, 2023
“If this were a charity to protect and serve the homeless, would we even talk about “losing money”? Or would we talk about losing services, and in doing so, causing more people to die on the street?”
“A Series of Compounding Crises.” The State of Post-Pandemic Theater Fundraising
Mike Scutari, Philanthropy Today
July 18, 2023
“Looking ahead, the good news is that performing arts fundraisers are operating in a climate where 72% of Americans believe the arts “unify our communities regardless of age, race and ethnicity,” [Theater Communications Group’s Teresa] Erying said.
American Theater Is Imploding Before Our Eyes
Isaac Butler
July 19, 2023
New York Times
“This smoldering crisis was exacerbated by the pandemic, a ruinous event that has closed theaters, broken the theatergoing habit for audiences and led to a calamitous increase in costs at a moment when they can least be absorbed. A collapse in the nonprofit sector doesn’t just mean fewer theaters and fewer shows across the country; it also means less ambitious work, fewer risks taken and smaller casts. The reverberations will be felt up and down the theatrical chain, and a new generation of talent will be neglected. As with a bank collapse, in which a few foundering institutions can bring down a whole system, the entire ecosystem of American theater is imperiled. And American theater is too important to fail.
This is why federal intervention is required.”
UPDATE 7/25
These two articles appeared in my feed just after publication of this article and are worthy of an update.
Theatre in Crisis: What We’re Losing, and What Comes Next
Alexandra Pierson, Amelia Merrill, Gabriela Furtado Coutinho, Jerald Raymond Pierce, Joseph Sims, Rob Weinert-Kendt
July 24, 2023
American Theatre
“…a ‘rising generation of donors’…. are increasingly ‘skeptical about the power of the arts to create a better world. Research shows that many of these funders prioritize advancing social, racial, environmental justice and equity; they seek specific, measurable impact; and they embrace technology to solve the pressing issues of our day.'” — Melissa Cowley Wolf, Arts Funders Forum
A Crisis in America’s Theaters Leaves Prestigious Stages Dark
Michael Paulson
July 23, 2023
‘“I’ve had many dark nights of the soul — who is going to survive, and how is the field going to survive?” said Taibi Magar, one of two artistic directors at Philadelphia Theater Company. “But then some days I wake up and remember that this art form is thousands of years old, and it has survived so many terrible moments. It will move and morph into its next phase.”’
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