After many articles sounding the alarm in the press about regional theaters closing, cutbacks to staff and the overall dire financial state of the regions, a pod of artistic directors from across the country have gotten together to form a group to petition lawmakers to save theater.
Again.
They’re asking for more money from the federal government.
Some big names want Congress to help.
I’m gonna delve into the big names… some of whom I know, for shits and giggles.
There’s a whole lot going on under those stage lights that I’m always interested in.
Obviously, the performing arts… and all of us… have been through some very tough times in the last 3 and a half years.. and the federal government came to the rescue.
That’s a blessing.. our tax dollars provided much needed assistance to save the arts during the pandemic… with years of PPP loans and additional money from the Shuttered Venues Operators Grants. The federal government even bailed out the bank that primarily does business with Broadway recently.
Theater came back to life over two years ago.
Two years ….
Commercial theater and not for profit theater reopened.. replete with some cash from the government. Even non Equity producers received millions of big bucks from Uncle Sam.
Each company of “Hamilton”, amongst many other commercial behemoths, received $10 million per to stay viable.. and they’ve remained gigunda moneymakers to this day.. the old mega-musicals are the biggest draws on Broadway and tours.
Ironically, the federal government assured the inequities that are persistent in theater remain… the rich are definitely getting richer…actors not so much.
We’re on our second full season of programming now.. in theaters all over the country… which is certainly enough time to ascertain what’s working and what’s not in terms of viability and audience interest.
What shows are selling? What shows aren’t? What strategies are working to cultivate audiences?
So, what’s the 2.5 billion dollars for?
For the reformation, of course.
OK, …theater is a capitalistic venture. You buy a ticket and you get something of value.
There’s no getting around that truth.
That’s how it works…
For starters, there’s an abundance of regional theaters across the country at this point, and some of them aren’t financially viable.
It’s normal for businesses… read regional theaters.. to shutter.
Out here where I live, realtors are starting to panic because inventory of houses on the market is so low .. and it’s drastically affecting their business.
Some of them won’t survive, and if they do they’ll come up with new strategies and work harder to get more business.
Why isn’t theater doing the same thing?
I guess the answer is artistic directors feel they don’t have to .. because they have a mission that they need help with that’s more important.
Here’s some of the peeps asking for $500 million a year for five years from the federal government to “survive and serve our communities.”
Not pictured are Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy O. Harris and others who are asking for help.
Collectively, they are representing theaters in all 50 states.
Specifically, what do they want the grants for?
Oskar is the artistic director of the Public Theater… and I know personally he is very committed to presenting new works and truly looks at the Public as “America’s theater”… he presented a show that I created and developed a few years ago.
The Public is a not for profit that is worth around a quarter billion dollars in income and assets… it’s a corporation that will survive just about anything.
While I’m sure he’s advocating for not for profits in general .. The Public obviously doesn’t need more federal funding to keep the lights on.
Maria, pictured in the center, was the line producer for my show at the Public.. knowledgeable and helpful in hammering out agreements that were necessary for the Public to present my show.
Maria left the Public to take the job as the artistic director of Woolly Mammoth in DC.
We had several conversations about diversity and entitlement at the Public…that she sometimes sorta steered to my entitlement, but I was too chicken to point out hers.
On July 8, 2020, WSYWAT released a 30-page “BIPOC Demands For White American Theater.” The list, which I highly recommend reading in full, perfectly demonstrates not only the revolution in the theater but also gives incredible insight into the novel application of critical race theory as expressed in workplace anti-racism practices. It includes a series of truly extraordinary demands, including quotas for every position in the theater and its adjacent industries, requiring that over 50% of all positions be filled with nonwhite people on account of the fact that whites only comprise “11.5% of the global population.”The document also suggests, among other things, that asking visiting artists to engage with donors at a fundraiser is akin to slavery, and that the rehearsal schedules must be reduced because, “for Indigenous artists and other peoples recovering from genocide, these practices are extremely detrimental.”
Clayton Fox/tabletmag.com
WE SEE YOU WHITE AMERICAN THEATER has been, and is currently, the foundation for the reformation. The Golden Tablets… the Bible. The Quran…the big Rig Veda.
Maria has publicly advocated to adopt the ultimatums for her theater…in addition to signing the original manifesto.
Financial viability, or any fiduciary responsibility is not a consideration for the movement.
Skin color is. Ethnicity.
That’s pretty much it.
There’s Us vs. White American Theater ….
People? Places? Things?
It’s not specified, but I’m assuming all of the above.
You’ll find nothing in the screed about making theaters more solvent or stable post pandemic … or anything resembling how to accomplish the myriad provisions.
There’s nothing much more than an angry list of demands that’s not at all based in the reality of line item budgets, or bottom lines. Or business.
It’s a willful suspension of disbelief manifesto that somehow a group of mostly successful and wealthy people in theater dreamt up.
And signed.
At least some of them are aware of the financial realities of show biz, and it’s hard for me to believe that they actually support the majority of the stuff in the WSYWAT sine qua non.
I suppose they do, sadly.
The clumsy application of the demands is well under way.
And it’s not a coincidence that so many regional theaters are shitting the bed:
“Kaiser, whose institute counsels hundreds of arts organizations across the country, believes that some theaters, motivated by honorable concerns about social and racial justice, pivoted in their programming too abruptly after the shutdown.
He called the move “a change of perspective in what stories they want to tell without necessarily bringing their audiences or their donors or their boards along with them, in a way that makes clear as to why this is important and how to participate and how to watch. And as a result, I think we’re seeing some serious loss of audience and board support and donor support.”
Washington Post
In plain English… that’s called burning down the house.
I find it outrageous that a group of smart artistic directors would even ask for financial support knowing that the direct result of their programming is contributing to financial ruin.
I’m sure that artistic vision, hubris, and a benevolent stubbornness is a big motivation … but it’s mind boggling to me that there is such little regard for audiences… or their own institutions. Or employees… some of whom are living it up on the unemployment line.
Nataki Garrett is asking for money. She stepped down after a fairly brief tenure as the Artistic Director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. To be sure, the pandemic and weather were factors in the decline of her theater…
Nataki Garrett, the artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, is stepping down after a tumultuous period that concluded with a financial crisis so severe that the nonprofit theater warned that it was unclear whether it would be able to finish this year’s season.
NY Times
But, it’s also clear she was flooring it and Thelma and Louiseing off the cliff with the Golden Plates of the WSYWAT movement in the back seat:
Garrett declined, through a spokeswoman, to be interviewed, but issued a statement saying, in part: “We are at an inflection point in our industry, where outdated business models must evolve in order for our theaters to survive. But these challenges also pose great opportunities — to rebuild in a way that reflects where we are today and where we want to be in the future — with actors, staff, audiences, and artistic leaders who reflect the richness of our country’s diversity. This is what excites me. This is the work I came to do.”
NY Times
The fact is her theater was in deep financial trouble… some of it bordering on criminal fraud it appears.
Her statement begs the question… is keeping your theater solvent an outdated business model?
Garrett’s tenure as artistic director has been controversial at times. Critics disagreed with her choice of productions, which continued the festival’s move toward more contemporary plays exploring social justice issues, and a greater focus on diverse casting. Garrett told The Oregonian/OregonLive last year that her goal was to create a successful, self-sustaining company, in part by building a more diverse audience
The Oregonian
Jeremy O Harris, more of a grievance guru now, is also weighing in on the need for federal assistance:
“We shouldn’t have to GoFundMe an entire industry, yet we are.”
Guardian
Yet, he wants federal grants for something that failed “years ago”:
“He singled out the subscriber model — in which theaters rely on a core base of fans to subsidize shows before they are staged — as a system of support that failed years ago.
Harris also said that in other cities, large theater companies’ obsession with funding expensive building projects was problematic and caused artistry to play second fiddle to the bottom line, making companies increasingly dependent on the whims of wealthy, often out-of-touch board members.”
That makes no sense.
Anyway, if you peruse the Theaterisdyingweneedhelp articles ..probably dozens in major newspapers over the last few months.. as I do, there are hundreds of responses in the comments section that very eloquently state the central issues for theater goers post pandemic. A majority currently find shows, and theater in general:
preachy, didactic, joyless, vapid, politics-laden, shallow, relentless hectoring on race and gender issues, mirthless, weaponized, tedious, propagandistic, constantly teaching, virtue signaling, exhaustive, like getting vegetables when I paid for dessert, laden with identity politics and tribalism, obsessed with grievance, producing material that promotes their ideological agenda, a soap box, entitled, exclusionary, in the hands of the wrong people, no appetite for transcendence, belabored, an assault, burned out, pounded over the head with social issues…………
That’s a just a sample. And most of these peeps ain’t coming back.
For me, the biggest disappointment of the anointed few who are representing theater nationwide in the press and in front of Congress with their hand out is the WSYWAT believers who, in spite of the smiles and achievements in their careers, signed a deeply homophobic and misogynist statement:
“We have watched you promote anti-blackness again and again. We see you. We have watched you say things like—I may be white, but I’m a woman. Or, I may be white, but I’m gay. As if oppression isn’t multi layered. We have watched you exploit us, shame us, diminish us, and exclude us. We see you. We have always seen you. And now you will see us … We will wrap the least privileged among us in protection, and fearlessly share our many truths. About theaters, executive leaders, critics, casting directors, agents, unions, commercial producers, universities, and training programs. You are all a part of this house of cards built on white fragility and supremacy. And this is a house that will not stand.”
We See You White American Theater
Twenty five years ago today, there was this gay kid who was on the wrong end of being shamed, diminished and excluded… and a couple of guys made sure he was seen by them…
He may be white, but he was gay.
Maybe there’s a better way to “survive and serve our communities”.
Because it’s not this…..
Robert DuSold 
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