"Theatre is dead."

[DMsquared2]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 8:46am

Irish actor Gabriel Byrne is convinced theatre will die out - because the audiences are too old.

The Usual Suspects star has appeared in several productions, including a starring role as King Arthur in Camelot in New York last year.

He has also received numerous accolades for his onstage performances, including an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play for 2005's A Touch of the Poet on Broadway.

And it was during his run in the show that the 58-year-old decided theatre-goers were a dying breed.

Byrne says, ?I looked out into the audience and the theatre was packed with well-to-do, white-haired people.

"After the show I turned to one of the other actors and said, ?Theatre is dead. There?s no one under 60 out there, they?re all white and they can all afford £200 for a night.' Seriously, theatre as we?re doing it now, is dead.?

Thoughts?

[morosco]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 8:54am

Theatre isn't dead. Shows like Camelot are dead.

[nearthestage]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 8:56am

Can you please post a link to the article? I'd like to read his words in context. - Thanks.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 8:59am

I think there's a bit of hyperbole here, but I think there is a bit of truth to what he's saying. Theatre companies need to actively reach out to different groups in order to cultivate an audience. [I think many of them have been very good about this, whether through discounts, talk-backs, or educational programs] I'm not sure about arts education in Britain, but I know in the States, something needs to be done to prevent cutting the programs in school. Several people mentioned this in the minorities and theatre thread, but there are less people exposed to theatre and different music genres because it's not in the schools.

it would also be nice if ticket prices on the whole were brought down. I know that's not always as feasible as we'd like it to be, but it would be nice if some theatre was subsidized either by the federal government or state government. it doesn't always appear like there is a respect for live theatre in the States [at least. again, I don't know what it's like elsewhere], which isn't helping to grow and mature an audience for it.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 9:02am

I counter with "Don't tell me that, I just got here"

[morosco]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 9:04am

GABRIEL BYRNE - BYRNE: 'THEATRE IS DEAD'

[DMsquared2]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 9:12am

What about rephrasing his statement to "Legitimate theatre is dead"?

The musical certainly dominates Broadway. And people are more likely to attend a musical than a play.

[morosco]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 9:17am

What about rephrasing his statement to "Legitimate theatre is dead"?

The musical certainly dominates Broadway. And people are more likely to attend a musical than a play.

In general I would agree.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 9:29am

Well, what is considered "legitimate"?

Theater will never die, so long as there are people willing to pay to see it. If the way to get people to pay to see it is to use the dartboard method of matching cast, director and play, then so be it. If the way to get people to pay to see it is to set a popular movie to music OR to put the screenplay and prerecorded songs on stage, so be it. It may not be good, it may not even come close to good, but people will pay to see it.

REAL theater isn't dead either. As long as there are tiny companies willing to produce plays by the likes of Adam Bock and Young Jean Lee and Adam Rapp and Itamar Moses, theater will live on. Updated On: 4/14/09 at 09:29 AM

[esparza 333]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 9:39am

I am confused by his words but I agree with DMsquared. But maybe Byrne is referring to classic theatre. I am sure shows like My Fair Lady, Camelot, Sound of Music, and more won't be performed as much when their original audience has passed. Theatre isn't being passed on as well as it should be.

[Shakespearean]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 9:56am

Due attention must be paid to developing new audiences, though, and not just as a source of revenue. In a recent Toxic Avenger post, I went on about how ecstatic I was to see so many middle and high school aged kids in the audience. The consensus in the lobby afterward was a general, "That was cool, can our school do that?" from kids who didn't strike me as being your normal school theatre kids, in fact, more seemed to be the ones who would be stuffing the theatre kids in their lockers. Overall, it was relieving to see.

My theatre company actually directs many of its educational programs at teachers. We offer a First Folio Cue Script workshop to teachers to offer them a new way to present Shakespeare in the classroom in place of the old 'Everyone reads a part, oh look I have no lines for twenty pages, I can do my math homework'; it actually requires them to be present and in the moment, and its had some excellent results. It's especially successful in schools that have no drama program.

Let's face it, the days of taking the family to the theatre at $125 a ticket are numbered. That's almost a year of playing World of Warcraft online, which is your 13 year old son going to ask for next Christmas? If the only alternative is to drag the kids to the West Chemung Community and Veteran's Center production of Oliver (with all the boys played by girls from Missus Brazhinski's dance academy), we're not working at the next generation. Unfortunately, most audience development programs are aimed at 25-40 year olds with the income to afford a theatre ticket. How can we get them to buy two more and bring the kids, and how can we get the kids to want to come along?
Updated On: 4/14/09 at 09:56 AM

[wonkit]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 10:13am

It isn't just theater. We have taken music and performing arts out of the grade school curriculum and now we are finding out what happens when you try to introduce 14-year-olds (and their parents) to something new. I think that the opera and classical music venues are already seeing the results of two generations of lack of exposure to live performance. And all of the reported problems with audience behavior start there, too. End of rant. Support arts in the schools!

Shakespearean - keep up the excellent work!

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 12:53pm

At this point, I refer to the words of Mel Brooks in that risible credits song he wrote for the end of the new Producers on film:

"It's often been said
That theatre is dead
The critics repeat it en masse
But the theatre's alive
It's gonna survive
Although it's a pain in the ass"

And in my personal opinion, to quote once again the lyrics that are slightly better than the melody for the piece:

"Though it is expensive
At 100 bucks a throw
There's nothing like
A Broadway show!"

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 2:00pm

We offer a First Folio Cue Script workshop to teachers to offer them a new way to present Shakespeare in the classroom in place of the old 'Everyone reads a part, oh look I have no lines for twenty pages, I can do my math homework'

Ha. My freshman year of high school, we read Romeo and Juliet like that- my favorite play. The teacher drew names out of a hat for parts and I got Friar John (there were only 6 boys in the class). The day where I finally had my line, I was out sick. I don't even like performing, but that was really lame.

Theatre has been around for millions of years. If it does die, it will have had a good run, but I don't see that happening in the immediate future.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 2:10pm

Oh Gabriel, turn the Victrola off.

[CSonBroadway]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 3:00pm

The arts in general in the US are dead. Many schools are getting threatened to have to cut the arts programs because "it is not popular". At my school, all it is about is sports. The drama department put on a preview of How To Succeed for all the students, and the students were talking and yelling words like "SLUT!" out during the show.

[DMsquared2]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 3:07pm

The drama department put on a preview of How To Succeed for all the students, and the students were talking and yelling words like "SLUT!" out during the show.

Maybe there were Rocky Horror fans at the wrong theater.

[CSonBroadway]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 3:45pm

My town is all kids in sports. About maybe 6 percent of my town's teens are in the arts.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 3:55pm

The arts in general in the US are dead.

Nope.

Many schools are getting threatened to have to cut the arts programs because "it is not popular".

I remember hearing that in the 80s. Schools still have arts programs and high schools for performing arts are still in cities all over the country.

At my school, all it is about is sports. The drama department put on a preview of How To Succeed for all the students, and the students were talking and yelling words like "SLUT!" out during the show.

I agree that the behavior of kids has declined somewhat (when does it not?), which has always been a complaint from generation to generation, but I'm not convinced the behavior of the kids at your school is the barometer for the deterioration of the arts in the US. I remember when a group of high school kids got kicked out of a movie theatre in Houston for laughing and making derogatory comments during Schindler's List. Films are still being made. It sounds more like the students were either bored or under little-to-no supervision. They behaved the same way many audiences did during operas, plays and ballets for centuries in Europe. I think that is more of a sign of the deterioration of morals and discipline, not that the arts specifically are dying.

Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, community theatre, school theatre, music, opera, ballet, and all forms of visual arts are still alive and well across the United States. They are evolving as they always have over the centuries.

I don't know which is more detrimental to the arts: people who don't appreciate what they see or "artists" who claim art is dead when things don't go their way. Even in periods of political and social strife including major bans of art and expression, art continued to live underground until it could once again resurface free from the constraints of dictatorial rule. To think art is dead in the US now is to laugh in the face of artists who truly struggled and/or died for their art in times when art was truly under attack.

[Anna_Elizabeth]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 4:02pm

As long as there is one person performing theatre is not dead. And theatre encompasses a lot of things. But it does amaze me how many people don't know what 'live' theatre is.

[Tom1071]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 4:14pm

And he determined that from the audience of "A Touch of the Poet?"

What did he expect?

Updated On: 4/14/09 at 04:14 PM

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 4:16pm

Gabriel Byrne is dead.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 6:16pm

Maybe the problem is the school forced high schoolers to watch How to Succeed. Making it mandatory isn't the solution either.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 8:47pm

Isn't his comment the equivilant of most of us turning to our kids and saying something like: "THAT'S not music"?

We move on and create anew.

And no, there are many, MANY schools where the arts programs are alive and kicking. Yes, they face tough times...but I can tell you in these tough economic times: my drama program took one of the smallest hit of any extra curricular program...including football and hockey.

Updated On: 4/14/09 at 08:47 PM

[Dre2387]

Posted: 4/14/09 at 9:00pm

my hometown's school district almost cut the theatre program at my middle show and high school due to having to create a smaller budget There was such an uproar from current students, former students, and parents during the next budget meeting that they had to work around it and the theatre program was saved (for now).

Theater is not dead; it's just in a slump right now. Once, there was an era of just revues, then there were lots of British shows that came over, and now its all about the movie musicals. It's not going last but it's just a phrase that we have to go through.