Two weeks ago, we sent out the first missive of our responses to the “crisis” in the American Theatre. Here are the rest of our takes, including an introductory reflection from Creative Producer Dedra Woods:
This financial situation of The American Theater has made its way into my anxiety sphere as I like to call it.
As an artist who works across multiple theatrical spaces, it is unsettling to watch as the nation reports that our art form is being thrashed and mangled by a proverbial monster who has come to rear its head post 2020 shutdown. I try to tell myself that all systems require a reimagining in order to sustain themselves and grow, but this hits close to home. I mean, let’s admit it, when the banks are failing, of course I get anxious, but it still feels like there is a level of separation between me and the blood suckers who preyed on people’s desire to, I don’t know, live the American Dream (I digress.) I’m the first to admit there naïveté written all over that statement but hey, maybe denial about the complete failure of the western financial system is something my spirit chooses not to make concrete at this moment. I can only handle so many high level calamities.
“Maybe the walls tumbling down will force us to re-examine how live storytelling can excite the masses again.”
I support myself and my family solely on Arts related jobs—theater primarily. So announcements of closures raise my blood pressure. The scarcity mindset of an artist is hard to break. I see changes happening in my community and feel hopeful. But something has to give in order for us to create an ecosystem where collaboration, resource sharing, and investment in responsibly supporting art makers financially is at the forefront. Maybe the walls tumbling down will force us to re-examine how live storytelling can excite the masses again, just as losing moments of in-person gathering during the shutdown showed us how vital live theater is to our ability to empathize.
“I remember how long people have been gathering to share stories and I let the optimist in me speak up.”
For a split second, the fatalist in me retreats to a very dark place where theater no longer thrives in this changing world. Then, I remember how long people have been gathering to share stories and I let the optimist in me speak up. “We’ll be fine, Dedra. It may be different, but change is inevitable.” And I respond, “ Thanks Optimist, I’m counting on you.” Naïve, I know, but somebody has to have some hope.
—Creative Producer Dedra Woods
Notes
45 Humble Suggestions
Designer and theatremaker Kate McGee’s list of “45 humble suggestions” went viral for good reason. Here are some of my favorite suggestions:
Work with the board to amend the organizational charter capping executive pay (Artistic Director, ED and director of production) at 1.3 to 1.6 times the salary of the highest paid full time salaried non-executive employee.”
“Engage in total budget transparency with creative teams and give them control of spending. If the artistic team wants to cut the lighting budget to make a series of gorgeous period gowns, let them. If they want to rent nothing and put a stool on stage but pay for everyone in the audience to have a little sculpture, let them.”
“Open a bar on site. A good bar. A bar that artists can afford. Hold your opening night parties there. Keep it open after the show. Turn the theater into a place that people feel comfortable hanging out.”
If you liked these, their Substack is worth a follow, including their piece “while you were partying’s creative team on putting people before things.” —Communications Manager Jesse Roth
PR of the American Theatre Crisis
I take issue with the PR angle many theatres have adopted—the one that leads with catchphrases like “Do Your Part” or “Live Theatre Needs You.” Season announcements have started to sound like public health campaigns. I can’t help but feel like I’m being scolded to take my medicine or eat my vegetables.
Attending theatre shouldn’t be a civic duty or moral responsibility. The cultural relevance of a performing arts institution gets decided with/by its patrons, and if patrons aren’t showing up, something’s off with the institution’s relevance.
What’s “off” about theatre these days? I believe, as this WaPo article says, that it’s “receded as a priority.” Some of this is surely due to factors outside our control: the internet age, economic recessions, theatre’s slow pace of production, etc. But also arts institutions’ failure to do the internal work necessary to create culturally relevant art, and their insistence that patrons should sit down and eat their vegetables.
I also want to call out the troubling point of view expressed by arts leaders like Michael Kaiser, who has apparently made himself very available for interviews on the state of American theatre, popping up in multiple articles on the US theatre crisis. This former President of the Kennedy Center believes artists of color are to blame for audience absenteeism: “Some theatres, motivated by honorable concerns about social and racial justice, pivoted in their programming too abruptly after the shutdown.” These kinds of calls for incrementalism have no place in our theatre ecosystem. —Actor Lee LeBreton
Decomposition Instead of Collapse
Resident designer An-Lin Dauber shared this piece. It offers decomposition as crucial metaphor for how we orient to this moment. Annalisa Dias writes:
“One of the biggest obstacles to systemic change is the unwillingness to move beyond the current paradigm we inhabit. We won’t be able to identify solutions or viability/scalability of those solutions until we move beyond an economic paradigm driven by scarcity. This essay is for those interested in using the imagination to push past the limitations of our current social and economic containers.”
This essay encourages us to consider this moment within a “dramaturgy of decomposition,” which can lead us away from the “tragedy” of endings and rock bottoms, and towards world-building and regeneration. I dream of our company being part of the kind of mycelial network Dias describes, “recomposing” a healthier ecosystem out of the nutrients shed from this crisis. This essay is an incantation towards the kind of theatre I want to be part of.—Communications Manager Jesse Roth