NPR: Many of the problems facing the nonprofit theater industry in the U.S. right now — from scant resources to the lack of diversity — have been around for ages.
But before the pandemic, performing arts groups were so focused on raising the curtain each night it was easier to ignore long-standing problems than fix them.
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The other day I was thinking about the fact of how much theatre has changed since COVID, so I was drawn to reading and responding to this article. There are many ways to define what’s happened to theatre since 2020, but the word “sustainable” definitely comes to my mind as a way to describe what’s happened. For so long theatre has been accustomed to the audience, like saying “the show must go on” because audience members payed. We’re pushing performers to their max and working 7 days out of the week for 12+ hours a day to put on a show. Now, we’re looking at the people who make the art. Are you sick? Then don’t come to the rehearsal or performance. It’s no longer, “Do the show and try not to throw up on stage.” Theatres are also struggling financially and that’s a different conversation about sustainability and the arts as a whole. The view of finances really has to be looked at with a different lense.
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