OrlandoSentinel.com: "Orlando Theatre Project, the area's longest-lived professional theater company, is calling it quits after 23 years.
The reason? The economy, of course, but also the hardships of an arts group so small it had no professional staff."
5 comments:
Its sad to see theaters closing everywhere because of the economy. The arts are so important to give people hope and entertainment during difficult times, and yet without funding there really isn't anything to do. Although 23 years isn't that long, one would think that something that is so established would be able to withstand the economic downturn a bit longer. It doesn't give much hope to even smaller theaters and companies.
I agree with Sylvianne and to add on to what she said, I think it is particularly sad that theaters have to dumb down what they are doing to get funding. Everything has to be family friendly or for kids for a community to see it as important. This is probably especially tough in a city like Orlando where almost everything is dedicated to children. Hopefully the economy will not claim many more theaters. Maybe theaters that are making the choice to shut down will be more able to reestablish there company when times are better. We can only hope.
I can understand why it may have been difficult for this theatre to stay afloat. I live close to Orlando and often go there for entertainment and while it is a huge city, there is also and incredible amount of competition. Not only is there a lot of theatre there are also countless other attractions which are not only considerably flashier than traditional theatre but also considerably more advertised.
Especially now in hard times Orlando is putting so much of its focus on tourist attractions , a lot of them geared toward international audiences, that are guaranteed to bring a profit, and that is what the government will support. This as the article states, does not leave any room for edgy grown up theatre.
I wonder if this theatre could've been saved by turning into a non-profit theatre. Back in Los Angeles, the Rogue Artists Ensemble, is a successful theatre group started as a non-profit. Groups of volunteers work on the production and make up the professional staff. The group gained recognition for its educational programs and received financial support from private funders. There are always new approaches to take to save a theatre. I would hope that the Orlando Theatre Project considered all its options before declaring it quits.
it is such a shame that another theater has closed because of funding. in the economy that we are in is casing so many theater to close because so many people are not coming because they are pinched for money and dont go then. so i hop that we will stop hearing of theater closing because there funding is having problems. i think that theaters might have to change there funding plans in order to say alive and thrive in the economy that we are in at this time and place in the world. i hop that we will not hear of any others.
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