Wednesday, July 04, 2012
Small theater companies in Pittsburgh face challenges due to economy
TribLIVE: When the economic road is rocky and filled with potholes, treading the cautious path might appeal to theater administrators.
“It’s hard to make money right now, especially for small theater companies. ... It seems easier to take the easy route,” says Laura Smiley, the artistic and executive director of Unseam’d Shakespeare Company.
Tami Dixon, the producing artistic director for Bricolage Production Company, agrees.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Alice Carter wrote an article titled “Small theater companies in Pittsburgh face challenges due to economy” for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. The article discusses how local theater companies such as Quantum Theater and Unseam’d Shakespeare Company have to be very couscous when determining what shows to put in their season. The reasoning for this is that the company’s future depends on the profit of their ticket sales. It is a fact that in creating a season a theater company needs to attract many diverse audiences in order to sell the maximum possible tickets. However, younger audiences want newer works that tend to be risk-ay, and older audiences want something more traditional and classic. In my opinion, the best way to blend these different themes is to take a classic play and put a new spin on this. To explain what I mean I will use the new Broadway Revival of Jesus Christ Superstar (JCS) as an example. JCS is a classic show that has had successful runs on Broadway and many regional theaters. Now what really intrigues the audience is how this production is set in the modern day, as where the original takes place in biblical times. By keeping the story, but placing it in another time period audiences curiosity draws them in. It is new an interesting things like this that I feel allow a production to generate ticket sales. Nonetheless, it was a risk changing the period of this classic story, but as Carter says at the end of the article, “It’s almost impossible to predict what will draw large audiences.”
It is interesting that some theatre professionals believe that "risky", controversial, or unconventional shows will not sell enough seats. Is it really a linear spectrum between financial prudence and more "challenging" work? Although financial security for smaller theaters is definitely important, I would hope that these smaller companies in the Pittsburgh will continue to take artistic risks and challenge themselves and the audience.
As noted in the article, playing it "safe" with show selection and production does not always lead to box-office success.
The challenges of a bad economy can be detrimental to many occupations, and it's extremely saddening to learn that it can even effect such meaningful and artistic fields such as theatre. In addition, "playing it safe" is a very unfortunate strategy to use in theatres; especially when involving the necessity of selling seats in order to sustain the theatre. Theatre is meant to be an experience, and not a cliche experience. People go to the theatre to see art, not something that they've seen three times before.
Post a Comment