TJ has been told by the stars to "still thy tongue", so here I am. I'm struggling with something I'll refer to as the "poverty-mentality" of the American theatre and the American theatre artist. I am so weary of working my evolutionary fingers to the bone for squat in my checking account. There are a million other professions out there that pay a living wage and allow you the freedom to go home at 5pm to your dog. So, I ask, why don't we demand more monetary respect for what we do?
I believe the fault lies in the institutions' hands, the unions' demands and the artists' lack of self-respect. Yet, I feel my business acumen is woefully lacking to truly understand the real economics at play. I use the phrase "poverty-mentality" to mean "oh, we'll never make enough money, so we might as well be grateful with the crust of bread we've got". To that I say, I'm tired of bread. I want champagne and oysters. I see younger organizations all the time emulating institutions founded on a subscriber-basis and putting their eggs in the "oh we'll get grants" basket in order to produce on a "we can't afford that" level, while those established institutions are generally far from fiscally sound. What about a model that has nothing to do with subscriptions? What about tiered ticket prices for the uber-rich and the struggling? (Think Rent's "starving artist" tickets or Wicked's lottery.) Or a model that's actually based on the sale of a product? I'm fascinated with De La Guarda and Cirque du Soleil for their astonishing theatrics, but also because of their business plans.
What about the idea of a small business model for theatre? Instead of a non-profit? Could this work? I think of the Starbucks guys or the neighborhood beauty-supply store-- those owners make a living, pay their employees and generally have nice benefits packages. I'm sick to death of the letter writing campaigns saying "believe in art and write me a check" -- let's put a product out there that's worthy of disposable income. I don't think I would mind becoming the "triple iced sugar-free vanilla soy latte" theatre of our time.
I may just get Tommy to open up on this one...Stars be damned.
1 comment:
First, Quincy, I think we have to examine the structure of capitalism as it relates values to cost. Secondly, we have to examine why different people go to the theatre (ie the market). These are huge discussions, and in part one that an industry person can only guess at (we'd go to the theatre for a million reasons, because of obsession and passion or interest or networking etc but the layperson goes for an entirely different set of reasons).
I think that the Pay What You Can is an interesting success story. Also Pay What You Think This Art Is Worth is something interesting. I know of a company that made more money when they adopted a 100% PWYC philosophy than when they had regular ticket sales.
To say that a person with disposable income would want to send a poor family to the theatre is very interesting - especially for a specific production. Sure, everyone wants the poor to see "important theatre" (Shakespeare) but do they give a shit if these families see new works? And why should they care?
Ok, this is clearly part of a larger discussion... but one that I'm glad we're starting.
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