Will these things help theater survive?

[shiben]

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.

 

[misterm]

didn't realize we needed help staying alive....

 

[chausman]

"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.

CYT Spokane put on Beauty and the Beast three years ago, with kids ages 8-18. We had 78 cast members, and 24 crew. We sold out our theater (seating ~750) we use, at all but one performance (opening night incidentally). And you can't say it was just parents, and rand parents we don't have that many people. We've done the same for Seussical, and almost with Little Mermaid.

YMMV.

 

[derekleffew]

didn't realize we needed help staying alive....

The recent epidemic of closures of performing arts organizations at all levels across the country wasn't a clear enough indication?

 

[Les]

"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.

So true. That was one of the parts of the article where I found myself going "huh?"
I agree that there is an epidemic of butchered Shakespeare in the Community Theatre world, but you also need shows like The Music Man to get butts in seats. When I worked in community theatre, I learned very quickly that our three summer musicals kept the theatre in the black, and funded the seven-straight-play season which would break even at best. The caveat was that the season subscribers (mostly "older folk") relied on the more dry money-pit straight plays, but the fact that they were subscribers meant that they were an enormous source of revenue. However, they want to see familiar shows on next year's season. Seeing a lot of obscure shows like "Reckless" may make them reluctant to resubscribe. Shakespeare can be a money maker, but it must be done well and the theatre must form a reputation of doing it well.

I was involved in a Blackbox production of Reckless in Dallas, and while it was a great show with excellent reviews, the crowds it drew were dismal due to the fact that no one had ever heard of it. In this economy especially, not many people are willing to gamble on a show they know (or have heard) nothing about.

 

[Teber]

I think it boils down to more than that, you need to bring people in to shows they do know in love, but make them really good so they want to see the other stuff you do, the stuff they haven't heard of -- I can open up a season with a kick butt version of Chicago, and the next show be Sarah Ruhls Eurydice, promote, promote, promote, people will return if they liked the first course, but never let go of quality. 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.

 

[shiben]

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.

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.

 

[josh88]

My college had the world premier of suzan Lori parks' 365 ( the series where she wrote a play a day for a year) and it was.... Poorly attended not because it wasn't good but because there's not a huge audience for productions like that in northwest Ohio. However ruhl's Eurydice was insanely popular for us.

I think we should change some ways to help with survivability but I felt like a lot of those statements were made by someone jaded and burnt out. Some though were reasonable points


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[museav]

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.

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.

One related aspect I find interesting is 'branding', something that is currently big in the worship arena. It is a matter of establishing an identity that then trickles down into everything you do. I see many theatrical venues and groups with little or no identity, they're just another group putting on productions and no different than the other group across town. What makes your experience unique so that people want to come there and do they know what to expect once they get there?

 

[derekleffew]

A related story.
Regional theater's art moving off center stage - latimes.com

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.

 

[chieftfac]

There are several questionable statements in this article, and it makes me question the whole article.... Ignore tax and alcohol codes??? are they nuts...we've dealt with this here in North Carolina... don't follow the law and have a special use permit for alcohol sales.... someone's going to jail right there and then, and being charged with a felony...

Also, having free wine or beer at a ticketed event requires a special use permit as well.... and you can not store "spiritous liquor" (IE... Scotch,Vodka) on the premises between events when there is no special use permit in effect. We have so many events during the year (11 last year) the state wants us to get a full blown alcohol permit...