Art Works: "There are many things I want to talk about. I want to talk about reactions to the #SupplyDemand conversation, how we frame our conversation and debate, the sense of balance in the theater, and many others. I thought I would write about what is on my mind right now: failure.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Supply and Demand, or Risk vs. Reward?
Art Works: "There are many things I want to talk about. I want to talk about reactions to the #SupplyDemand conversation, how we frame our conversation and debate, the sense of balance in the theater, and many others. I thought I would write about what is on my mind right now: failure.
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Interesting point. Failure seems to be in the back of everyone's mind in the theater. How many of us have adopted Beckett's "Try Again. Fail. Fail better." as a mantra. We don't want to fail as artists. We are not masochists. But we already know in this modern climate the arts game is a loosing game. We will fail (loose subscribers, work too hard to make a decent wage or have our agency declare bankruptcy) but will will still try and fail better. What this man is doing is trying to adapt to the NEA rational supply & demand attitude by turning our concept of failure into the financial risk & reward. He seems to think it is a potential alternative to supplydemand thinking. I think it's more of the same. The NEA wants (or we all think it does) to put funding in terms of a product: theater as a product and the audience as a consumer. This man wants to put theater (and therefore getting more funding) as an investment. Theater as a commodity. The more sucessful (which is quite opposite of fail better) the more people (NEA) will invest.
While this is a nice idea, I don't see how this is any different from how theaters had already been working. He began his article wondering about why theaters always think about the past. In doing so he's fulfilling that stereotype.
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