shiben
Well-Known Member
Ten Things Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves by Brendan Kiley - Seattle Theater - The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper
A perspective on keeping theater alive.
A perspective on keeping theater alive.
The recent epidemic of closures of performing arts organizations at all levels across the country wasn't a clear enough indication?didn't realize we needed help staying alive....
"Find new, good, weird plays nobody has heard of"
We did something similar to that this year. 'Seven Keys to Baldpate'. Of seven shows, three of them had more people on stage, then in the audience. And it was certainly weird.
Also, bring in people from the community like high schools to check out the theatre, then let them watch the dress rehearsal for free -- we need to bring arts back into our high schools or else in a few years, no one except the people who already are here will care to learn a new art form of lighting and scenic design. Bring in the young ones or what we are laying down for them to follow will just be the road not taken.
I was at a community theater production last night and a board member made a comment about letting people take coffee into the theater to help them stay awake as a performance until 10PM was a late night for many of their patrons. The vast majority of the audience was older (and that means something when I say it) including most of the season ticket holders. Focusing on the youth is actually an approach some churches have used to grow. What they do is attract the youth, even busing them in from outlying areas in some cases, and find that a good number of their parents and families will eventually follow.See this is what resonated with me the most. I figure its best for ya to bring piles of kids in, then they bring their family if they like it or whatever... Anyhow, then they get the idea that a fun time is at the theater, etc... All the theaters I work in rely on some seriously old audiences, and that to me is a serious problem.
The problem in a nutshell is this: Established theaters have by and large grown larger, public funding has become a monumental challenge and artistic directors have moved in an increasingly commercial direction, adopting a bottom-line mentality that has put publicity and profitability over bold and substantive choices.
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