Gradually, Then Suddenly
Hemingway's answer to "How did you go bankrupt?" in "The Sun Also Rises"
Hey! I know, I know. If you care about the state of the nonprofit theater scene, you probably have been dreading seeing a new email from me in your inbox. I apologize, but things seem to be moving very quickly lately, and the media has started to catch on to the story that the nonprofit theater world seems to be in the midst of a serious financial crisis. The latest to sound the alarm is Cara Joy David at BroadwayWorld.com. David wrote an essay entitled “Signature Reduces Programming As Hundreds of Non-Profit Theaters Scale Back or Worse” which starts out as being about the reduction of the Signature Theatre’s season from 4 productions last year, and 6 prior to the pandemic, to 3 this year. David quickly brushes this announcement to the side in order to write about the shape and causes of the financial crisis shuttering theaters across the nation.
David acknowledges that part of the problem is the audiences haven’t come back to the theater after the most intense years of COVID, but she doesn’t see that as central. Instead, she says, it’s funders. Quoting Janet Mullet, the Managing Director of Northlight Theatre, who celebrates the Shubert Organization for its continued support, she contrasts it with foundations like the “MacArthur, that used to do three- and five-year funding, that was one of our foundation pieces, and they pivoted very suddenly, and with almost no notice, out of the arts…And it has left giant holes in many of our budgets.” David then continues in her own voice, “Nationwide, especially among small and midsize theaters (which don’t have the endowment of larger theaters and therefore are naturally more fragile), the biggest trend I’ve seen is a large drop in smaller foundation giving and corporate and individual donations. Many smaller foundations have entirely shifted funds away from the arts. The local businesses that used to sponsor full seasons are fewer in number. Individual giving is also way down.” She continues:
“The companies I contacted that used to give more to theater than they do now were reluctant to speak on the topic. Those that chatted with me on background cited three reasons. The first is dwindling profits and fears of recession. The second is a reallocation of resources, usually to racial justice or climate justice projects. But the third relates to the culture war that theater is now seen as part of—companies still giving to the arts are giving to an art form they see as less controversial.
Additionally, theater leadership changes, which have been coming nonstop in post-pandemic times, have not helped, because it is the former leaders that had the relationships with contributors. Companies and individuals are not as likely to donate when they receive outreach from a stranger. Plus, donors have less confidence in the direction of a theater when it is under new management.
Shifting focus, David also notes that another problem is that many theater artists and technicians left the industry during the pandemic, and now there’s a shortage. David:
“In addition to ticketing and fundraising shortfalls, theaters have also had to face an exponential rise in expenses. We all know that during the pandemic costs for materials skyrocketed. Many items never came back down. Additionally, workers now usually cost more. In California, small entities that used to pay a stipend to actors and some behind-the-scenes team members are now legally required to pay state minimum wage. Elsewhere employees are simply requesting more money to keep up with the living wage. There is also a labor shortage given how many people left the industry during the pandemic, sometimes leading to what becomes a bidding war between theaters for skilled technicians. Theater executives said shows were sometimes three times more expensive to mount than they would have been in 2019.
…
“Expenses are rising at a more rapid pace than any of us can keep up with,” said Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company Artistic Director Chris Coleman, whose theater is doing better than most. “And the temporary labor market has dried up—people tired of the gig mentality, so we can’t get those people even at three times what we used to pay them. So it’s a fascinating business model to try to solve for.”
As you might expect, it was “business model” that caught my attention, but mainly because Coleman and David are saying the quiet part out loud. Theaters have been balancing their budgets on the backs of artists, and suddenly they can’t anymore. If your business model is destroyed by paying actors and backstage personnel minimum wage or even a living wage, well, I don’t have a great deal of sympathy. You probably ought to close your doors.
It is time for this nonsense to end. We’re in the midst of a writers strike in Hollywood in which TV writers in particular are protesting being taken advantage of by streaming services that are not paying royalties—in other words, writers are protesting a gig economy in which they are not receiving a living wage. Perhaps it is time for theater artists to harden their hearts and stop being taken advantage of by institutions.
And I say harden their hearts, because David ends her article with a lengthy and emotional appeal begging spectators to please come back to the theater. That theaters are cutting back on their educational outreach, which is a tragedy, and the arts are so important to our culture and so on. It’s actually heartfelt and moving, but you can can almost sing the chorus with her, the tune has been sung so many time. It’s frustrating to me because it’s as if she didn’t actually read what she herself just finished writing. Attendance is only a small portion of a much larger problem that she just sort of breezes by in her appeal, saying “You can object to how some of the non-profits spend their money—there are valid discussions to be had there” but doggone it, there are a lot of theaters really squeaking by on a shoestring.
Listen, this is a real problem, one that is rooted in longstanding issues surrounding a business model that relies on a constant influx of low-paid labor, unearned income, and the exploitation of theater artists. Now isn’t the time for sentimental appeals, now is the time for these theaters to have their feet held to the fire. Now is the time for theater artists and technicians to say enough to working for nothing, for subway fare, for a tiny stipend, for salaries that don’t represent a living wage, and on short-term contracts.
I love theater as much as David, as much as any of you reading this, but damn it we have been sweeping all this under the rug for fifty years now. As Joseph Wesley Ziegler said in Regional Theatre (quoted in my “Let’s Be Real About Money” post), we knew by 1973 that the “cultural explosion” was a mirage, but theater leaders ignored that fact. And now it’s time to pay the piper. It’s amazing it took this long.
As has been said by politicians and activists, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Now is the time to really take a clear-eyed look at the nonprofit business model and its suitability to theater. I don’t expect the current theater leadership to do this—they are too busy trying to keep their institutions afloat—but somebody needs to be trying to find the lifeboats instead of just distributing umbrellas.
P.S. Theater history is one place to look. So are contemporary books on entrepreneurship. That’s where I’m looking.