As I wrote in the Shakespeare in the Park thread above, nonprofit theatres have been -- by and large, with obvious exceptions -- producing shitty work for the last five years, pre and post-COVID. Audiences disappear when the work is no longer relevant or competent. This isn't that hard to figure out ... the gatekeepers and those in charge of production and programming are, for the most part, completely isolated from the general audiences they need to fill houses. For too long, these nonprofit producers have been bending over backwards to create theatre that caters to an imaginary audience that doesn't exist (or doesn't exist in the size needed for financial stability).
When a commercial production fails, it fails. Life goes on. When a nonprofit production fails, people blame every societal cause possible except ... maybe the shows are bad? Maybe they are consistently bad? Artistic Directors and Managing Directors keep their jobs, rinse and repeat. Then one day we wake up a decade later and ask, "WHERE ARE THE AUDIENCES?" Um, they're tired of being burnt out on boring, stupid, lazy theatre making. |
