wesa.fm: For the roughly 200 actors, playwrights and other behind-the-scenes talent who gathered at the O’Reilly Theater for a Theater Artists Town Hall on the matter this past Monday, stage work is their passion and their livelihood. One attendee told me before the event he expected “fireworks.”
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Again another sad story for this industry, the lack of investment and opportunity to produce art is continuing to decline in America, and it's so sad to see as such a culturally diverse place it just seems like it should be the most likely spot to flourish, and instead we see a severe lack of investment from communities and cities. But there's hope yet, I personally believe that with some investment the art industry could seriously become one of the most important industry's in the country. While we no longer produce goods, we now consume goods, and what's better in a consumer market than more to consume. There's seriously people that are still clinging onto this concept that in order to grow as a nation that we need to reverse course and de-globalize, It's simply not going to work and the industry that needs investing is the arts because people love experiencing these things.
Before reading this, I was unaware of the financial struggles that local theater organizations were dealing with in Pittsburgh, especially with relation to the deficits they are running under and the pay cuts and furloughing that the Public is having to go through in order to stay afloat. Further, while I understand the need to do this properly and take one’s time to ensure collective action is moving in the right direction, I wonder what urgency is needed to address the issues at hand. How long can these theaters operate in their current state and what other concessions will they have to make in the near future in order to continue to survive? Hopefully there will be a greater drive for collective action before much further individual changes will be made, both for the sake of the theaters, but also for the staff that work there that will inevitably need to take on a part of this burden in order for the theater to survive.
I’ve vaguely heard talk of this potential merger while I was working with a company over the summer that revealed more details. This looks like the artistic directors for each company are taking a united front approach, but in this approach it also looks like they’ve circled the wagons and don’t know what they are doing, which is now causing the 200 plus affected artists to start questioning a lot of stuff very quickly. I’m not surprised at where they are in the process having watched and helped two theatre companies merge a few years ago. The unfortunate thing is that they will hit a point where the decision just needs to be made and whether they had the open forum or not won’t matter because there will always be someone upset. If I were to go through a merger again, I would definitely suggest that before you say anything in a public space you know exactly what the plan is and execute it as quickly as possible. You’ll still have backlash either way, but by moving forward and having progress you’re telling people “We know what we are doing and you can either come with us or get out.”
To be realistic about the future of Pittsburgh theatre, I’m definitely concerned about the financial situations of each of these organizations. I love Pittsburgh, and I want the city to flourish and get to experience art excellence. I do really appreciate that each of the organizations pledges to uphold their own artistic visions, but their lack of vision for the future is definitely adding to the concern. I would be surprised if a lot of people wanted the three biggest groups to merge, but it may be an unfortunate reality of the financial and political landscape. I am slightly hopeful that the entrance of a new mayor could help combat the dire situation, but it may not be enough, especially with many issues to address in that office. I think the Public has the most concerning budget losses, especially how much their full-time employees have lost to keep their organization afloat. I do think if one group will see the most benefit from the new mayor, it would be the Public. I am hopeful that they see some support, and that even without committing to anything, they start making concrete plans in case of emergency.
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