A D.C.-based director directed Tboy's attention just now to an interesting read: The Seattle Weekly's just-published look at the state of that city's theater scene. Seattle's one of the places Tboy hears D.C. compared to pretty frequently, in terms of the size, the range, and the diversity of its theater scene -- and it's sobering to be reminded, as D.C. gears up for its second fringe festival, that Seattle's died the death a few years back.
The Weekly's article covers a lot of ground, from structural problems to gentrification to out-of-town casting to the graying of the audience, and it's full of stuff that'll probably ring large (and possibly alarming) bells for D.C. theatermakers. One particularly likely sample:
"Midsized theaters are critical to the health of a theater town, but they're tough to run even during the best of times. A theater like the Empty Space with a mere 150 seats and a budget of, say, $1 million, can lose money even when its shows sell out. And when they try to make up the difference by chasing down another $400,000 or so from corporations or foundations, midsized operations are in competition with the more experienced and better-staffed larger houses. ... At the same time the midsized company's aim to pay a living wage to some artists and staff, as well as provide a "professional" experience on their stages, means its budget is exponentially higher than a fringe company, where artists and staff are unpaid or paid a pittance."
That's exactly the hurdle faced here by companies like, for instance, Theater J, where audiences have come to expect a certain polish, but where the annual budget still hovers, if Tboy's not mistaken, around $1 million.
What to do? Your guess is as good as Tboy's. Ticket prices are already high, actors and techs already don't make enough money, and there's a limit to both personal and corporate philanthropy. Tboy's all for the kind of shoestring work Akerley advocates in this other bit of chat about crowded markets and different approaches, but he's not prepared to suggest that every company should make that kind of thing its mission.
The complete article, by Seattle-based director John Longenbaugh, can be found over here.
P.S. - Tboy wonders how willing we are to take a hard look at the truth behind one of the essay's other observations:
"[A] certain amount of opening and closing is expected in every industry. It's even healthy, up to a point ... [T]heaters ... sometimes close for the best of reasons, like artists ... admitting to themselves that their work is uneven, or just because they aren't having fun any more."
Tboy thinks that's what Akerley is suggesting in her examine-your-navel argument: Have you asked yourself lately why you're still making theater? (And she's not the first: Tboy liked the question just as much when then-TCG boss Ben Cameron asked it last March, in his American Theatre column.)
A better question yet: What should you do if the answer is "I'm not sure"?
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