HowlRound: We know that, in the aggregate, incomes and life expectancies in rural America are significantly lower; infant mortality rates and drug abuse significantly higher. Presently, there is insufficient attention to such disparities—per capita federal spending remains persistently lower in rural communities, and only 1 percent of private foundation giving in all categories reaches rural nonprofit organizations. We also know these disparities persist in a grinding recession that has affected middle- and working-class and economically poor people regardless of geography.
2 comments:
This article really struck home for me, mostly because where I come from, theaters have to fight to exist. Most people are farm people, who live 20 minutes from the little towns and who would rather play corn hole and have a big bonfire than see live theatre on a Friday night. But, the main reason they stay away when the ability to see it is cheap and available (and reasonably good quality) is because they can't relate. These people can't relate to broadway shows from the 1960s. But they can relate to arts that are relevant to their lives. I think a movement is needed that represents theatre for everyone. Not just the whitest and richest 15 percent, but theatre that lower income and minorities can relate to. That's really the best way to rebuild the arts in America, write something people care about.
I love that these professional theatres exist and are trying to reach out to everyone. I have to admit I have never considered what theatre is like or if it even exists in areas like the Appalachian Mountain area. But I am glad that it does. The article quotes Alexis de Tocqueville saying, 'only in the theater have the upper classes mingled with the middle and lower classes'. It must have sounded so great and noble when he wrote it, but I don't think that it is true any more. I think that 'mainstream' theatre has gravitated as a whole toward the moneymakers and the upper class crowd pleasers. Which is incredibly dangerous, because if you are only marketing to the upper rich percent, they are going to get bored eventually and theatre won't have a leg to stand on. But where Roadside thrives is that they market to everyone, the lower class identifies and when the upper class sees shows about the lower class they usually can find it fascinating. What I am getting at is that companies like this are pivotal in the future of theatre, and getting that type of art out to everyone.
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