We’ve been debating whether theatre is dying for over two thousand years. However, I do believe that for the first time, we are at a crossroads where theatre artists must change what they’re doing and how they’re doing it or risk becoming even more irrelevant in our society. Theatre will never be completely dead in our lifetime, but it’s moved from Intensive Care to a ventilator, at least as far as the average Joe is concerned.
McNulty said in the Times that if you give the people what they need, they will come. I agree. And if audiences are not coming, then one can assume they don’t need what is being offered. I run a theatre and often don’t feel the NEED to drive across town and pay $50 to see a play that someone else decided to do. And I run a theatre! I’ve made it my life’s work, and I feel that way!
Of course there are theatres that do one specific thing for one specific audience and their houses are full. But creating new audiences is the real challenge in this digital age. Tweeting about your show is not going to convert many twenty-somethings to start going to live theatre. It’s much more than just marketing that needs to be done. People need to be turned on to art when they children. This “creating audiences of tomorrow” cliché that’s been on every grant application for the past two decades has finally caught up with us. Arts Ed is virtually gone and video is the only art kids consume with their Hot Cheetos. Most artists don’t care about Arts Ed, but it is at the heart of the “is theatre dying?” conversation. And until our best artists invest in Arts Ed, we will be pushing a boulder up a mountain in trying to get young adults to start coming to live theatre. LA Unified is virtually shutting down its Arts ED Branch and the letter-writing campaign to save Arts Ed in LAUSD has only generated half the number of letters as did the threat of closing LA’s Cultural Affairs Dept. That is telling. And it is part of the food chain that ate the Pasadena Playhouse.
Theatre artists also need to really ask themselves what their community needs. Will that change the art? You bet it will. And it’s a scary notion. What happens if we just start giving the public what they really want. Isn’t that reality TV? Won’t it lead to the dumbing down of theatre?
Well, we have to look even deeper and not just ask, “What kind of shows the public really needs?”. Theatres need to ask the much more profound question, “WHAT DO PEOPLE NEED IN THEIR LIVES TODAY?” Many artists will have no interest in this question, as it is has nothing to do with how they have always created their works. Yet by definition, non-profits are Public Benefit corporations. We are there to serve the public, not just to do the art that we like and think the public should like too. If they liked it as much as we do, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
This is a sea change. If theatres dare to ask how they can really serve the public in the 21st century, the art will change. The audience might change. The artists might change. The ticket prices might change. But what also might change, is that theatre will clearly matter to our society.
