Monday, August 26, 2024
Chatter and The Exodus Ensemble succeed with contrarian techniques
Performance | santafenewmexican.com: At a time when most performing groups feel fortunate if they can maintain the status quo, two New Mexico arts leaders face the uncommon but rewarding challenge of managing growth amid increasing audience demand.
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When considering how our country is very much built on a capitalist mentality and model, this article and approach to a business is very interesting. As they said in the article, not charging for tickets and performing exclusively for small audiences sounds like it would be an oxymoron and not be financially viable for the long term. However, this company is able to make the entire scenario work. The way that this company has raised half a million dollars through this approach, and ticket sales have almost doubled, makes me question why more theaters and companies don’t employ this technique. If you visit a Broadway show, tickets are often in the hundreds of dollars; and 20-30% of these shows don’t end up turning a profit anyway. I think that this company is onto something by making affordable art, by artists, for other artists and people who truly enjoy art. If more artistically driven companies employed a similar model, and did not base their worth off of ‘growth for the sake of growth’ or how large the higher-up paycheck is while paying performers the minimal amount, there would be more room to take risks and enjoy artistic freedoms without worrying about the general capitalist model and financial gain. I believe (and I think this article helps affirm that belief) that if you do what you love for the sake of sharing it, you will be successful. If you do it all for the possibility of profit, you may not.
Incredible how the co-directors Tony Zancanella and April Cleveland brought life back into the Santa Fe community and the Opera Southwest. Their word of mouth approach and affordable access to local theatre is a great way to get involved and educate the youth & people of Santa Fe, and beyond. The Chatter and Exodus Ensemble group has also done an amazing job when it comes to fundraising money. They raised around $500,000 which is absolutely insane and incredible. The co-directors also have a lot of faith, confidence, patience, and perseverance to be able to trust this long and very windy path to success. In addition, for Zancanella, being given such a scary and new opportunity at age 21, and accepting it is very scary. In theatre, having an open mind is encouraged and saying yes to everything is also highly recommended, but it can be very terrifying nonetheless, especially when you do not know what exactly you are signing yourself up for. Kudos to both Tony Zancanella and April Cleveland for bringing this company to the point where it can produce incredible and beautiful art.
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