Theater is In Free Fall (Washington Post article)- Page 2

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 7/7/23 at 7:39pm

perfectpenguin said: "RippedMan said: "To be fair, that is People’s Light’s agenda. Most nyc actors won’t go near there because they’re anti-LGBTQ etc. It’s just a Christian theater group."

Ive never got Christian theatre group from them."


I was confused by this comment as well. The theater is in a rural area of Pennsylvania, so it’s inevitably going to have a lot of conservative patrons that they have to please, but I think that’s it. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/7/23 at 8:10pm

Kad said: "perfectpenguin said: "RippedMan said: "To be fair, that is People’s Light’s agenda. Most nyc actors won’t go near there because they’re anti-LGBTQ etc. It’s just a Christian theater group."

Ive never got Christian theatre group from them."

I think RippedMan may be thinking of Sight & Sound in Lancaster."

Touché! I absolutely was!

[perfectpenguin]

Posted: 7/7/23 at 8:12pm

Kad said: "perfectpenguin said: "RippedMan said: "To be fair, that is People’s Light’s agenda. Most nyc actors won’t go near there because they’re anti-LGBTQ etc. It’s just a Christian theater group."

Ive never got Christian theatre group from them."

I think RippedMan may be thinking of Sight & Sound in Lancaster."

Ahhh yes, that’s probably correct. 

[bear88]

Posted: 7/7/23 at 11:33pm

If I didn’t know any better, and didn’t notice a few hard-to-miss signs, I would think theaters are doing relatively well, at least compared to movie theaters. The latter are dying rapidly, with closures left and right. I remember when Berkeley was a film lover’s paradise. Now most of the movie theaters are closed. And the market for serious films is in serious trouble, to the point where I wonder if it will ever come back. Even when something looks intriguing, it plays to a handful of people each night and then vanishes after a week or two - as everyone knows it will be available at home soon.

By comparison, live theater is holding up OK. The Berkeley Rep may have to offer discounts on TodayTix but the theaters are mostly full for serious fare like Cambodian Rock Band (which was terrific) and English (which just won a Pulitzer Prize). But I didn’t pay much to see either play, which isn’t great news for the Berkeley Rep.

Some of the things that work on Broadway, like hiring famous actors in serious plays, don’t work for regional theaters. The work has to draw audiences without much help. And there has been a strong push for it’s-good-for-you plays that aren’t crowd-pleasers even if the play is excellent. And many of them aren’t really all that special.

It often feels like many regional theaters have forgotten that entertaining shows can help the medicine go down a lot more easily. I see creatives who clearly recognize this, and theaters need to figure out a way to provide balanced seasons that are more realistic about how many depressing plays people really want to see. (I have a high threshold for grim plays, but I still have a spouse to persuade.)

Theaters and major things like the Oregon Shakespeare Festival are in survival mode now, and perhaps that will lead to better ideas moving forward. I don’t want live theater to shy away from challenging new works; some of my favorite new shows have caught me off guard and got me thinking. It’s one of the things that keeps theater alive.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with a little retrenchment. I saw A Chorus Line for the first time last week at the San Francisco Playhouse (small theater, packed house, my family paid full price). That theater has planned a conservative season that’s more revival-heavy than usual, which is probably smart. Audiences need to be lured back into theaters, where they hopefully will recall why they liked it in the first place.

[sinister teashop]

Posted: 7/7/23 at 11:47pm

JSquared2 said: "Many of the regional theatres have been faltering post-Covid because they (and their DEI consultants) are programming entire seasons with plays that they think their audiences SHOULD like -- rather than what they actually WOULD like. Most people go to the theatre to be entertained -- and instead they are being offered "serious drama" and preachy sermonizing."

Culture is so polarized right now that the idea of popular entertainment, particularly in nonprofit theater seems like a fantasy.

I'm reminded of the short reign of CEO Chris Licht at CNN who wanted to steer the company "back to the middle". 

There is no middle left, not economically and not culturally. 

 

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 7/8/23 at 12:13am

I don't think the change in programing necessarily is the fault of "diversity" or whatever specter people are looking to blame... but the fact that programming changed so quickly.

We recently had a small theater here in Chicago close that had run exclusively musicals and plays you've heard of on TINY budgets for 20 years. The new artistic director did a season of a world premiere play and a production of a semi-famous musical that the director "reimagined as a celebration of trans joy, love, and creativity." People seemed to like the new programming... but it was a complete 180 from the programing they'd done in the previous 19 seasons. Of COURSE you lost the majority of your audience- your audience has told you exactly what you they want... and you're giving them something different. 

Now. Maybe that something different will end up being MUCH better, more important, more relevant, and even more entertaining. I just feel like you have to be more gentle with the change... help your audience with the transition. OR you need to have funding that will allow you to lose significant ticket sales in the interim... while you lose some of your original audience while also gaining a significant new audience.

Reading about OSF's issues, it shocked me how much of their budget was made up of ticket sales. I'd assumed that their radical shift in programing was supported by a healthy endowment and sponsorship fully behind the change. You can't dive off a cliff without a parachute. I think a lot of OSF's new programming was super terrific (and probably ESSENTIAL)... and I bet an audience would have showed up eventually (and hopefully will!)... but pivoting so quickly and aggressively really seemed foolish. Particularly in these tough times (though I know their programming changes began before the pandemic).

If you make the majority of your money from single tickets... you have to serve your audience and your community. Your ACTUAL audience and ACTUAL community.