Tuesday, September 17, 2024
The great big Broadway squeeze
www.broadwaynews.com: When you water it all down, there are really only two sides to any business equation: money in, money out.
In passion- and purpose-filled arts and entertainment industries like Broadway, it’s sometimes hard to make space and confront the financial realities that the money-in-money-out forces bring.
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2 comments:
As the author mentions, I believe the more interesting aspect (and also requiring more creative solutions) of the theater industry is the ‘money out’ component, especially considering how the creative work directly affects the technical and logistical details. Particularly, at present moment I think the variability of design across shows makes it difficult to predict or create a system of stock goods or methods that will reliably reduce costs in an industry that is also constantly trying to innovate in design. As it relates to labor, regardless of solution, it is essential that those who create the shows are supported to a significant degree such that they are also motivated to innovate and collaborate in order to efficiently and effectively create technical effects for the stage. Lastly, I think a major revenue stream to consider is looking more into capturing of performances (similar to the filming of Hamilton) to expand audiences and create more draw for theater. What is exciting is the live performance, and if we cannot use media and video to demonstrate this excitement, the live component of theater becomes harder to sell, especially for newcomers to theater. This may be one creative solution to expanding the ‘money in’ component of our business.
The conversation to grow revenue to find a way to earn more money to continue to pay the people who want to create and tell these beautiful stories in front of a live audience. How do we solve this problem? Raising ticket prices shrinks the audience that can afford to come and view and in turn diminishes the art that is produced. I also think that the lack of use of the theaters and how often they sit empty eating money not providing work to the actors and technicians is where we can increase revenue. How can theaters utilize the long list of employees and their diverse skill set to provide new experiences, to community outreach projects, partnering with a company to assist in the launch of a new product. We as an industry need to be willing to sift away from our only source of income coming from the shows we produce and donations. How can we utilize the Costume department to offer more sellable goods? How can we utilize the scenic art department to do murals around the city? How could we utilize the carpentry department to assist in providing an offsite experience related to the show? So can we start to offer tours and open seating for a load in call for our audience to see the magic in the theater happen in real time. I think there is an opportunity for theatres to expand away from increased ticket prices to increase incoming revenue. What can we offer to sell to increase revenue?
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