Why You Aren’t Attending The Theater

0 CommentsThursday • May 19, 2011 • by Imei

Mike Daisey delivered a heartfelt one-man monologue about how theater has failed America as a part of a fundraising event by The Seattle Repertory Theater on behalf of Intiman (Bagley Wright) on May 18, 2011. Daisey has been performing his one-hour forty-five minute play, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” in Seattle the past few weeks, earning him standing ovations for his delivery about the rise and fall of the software giant, and the complexities involved in delivering the world the iPhone and iPad from factories in China. It became clear to me, via the row upon row of empty seats during the fundraiser, why you aren’t attending the theater.

For those of you who don’t know the state of the fundraising process for Intiman, take a look at this article, which paints a bleak picture of Intiman’s future. Already, employees have been let go unpaid, and the 2011 season cancelled. The Seattle theater community was stunned by the news. Fundraising will be applied to open for next season, and ticket holders have been advised as to how to exchange tickets in lieu of cash. [editor's note: to clarify, Intiman is having financial problems, and SRT ran the fundraising campaign. Additionally, ACT gave a generous donation to assist Intiman, but it appears that the shortfall Intiman is experiencing is not enough to make up for the deficit].

Yet there is a bigger problem than cash flow that looms heavily on American theater. Raiser suggested to the audience that even if ticket prices were lowered to thirty percent off, fifty percent off, or even free, audience numbers will continue to dribble. The deciding factor won’t ride on the shoulders of committed actors and actresses, though they will play a part.The only thing that will save the theater are young people who catch the bug for the theater, fall in love with the stage, and invest themselves in a lifetime of supporting live theater, playrights, and actors.While he said that he could see younger faces in the audience, from my perspective in the balcony, I hardly saw any younger faces. In fact, almost every face I saw was older than mine.

Where are the young people? And why is it that the best plays, music, art, and dance are still being choreographed, designed, written, and produced by a generation or two previous to the current one? Where are you, o fresh faced and bright eyed young uns?

I suspect younger audiences are not attending the theater for the following reasons:

1. Younger people are not entering the theater as a career because they don’t want to starve (or as Daisey suggested, get paid in cheese).

2. The theater has not caught on to how to make it “cool” to attend the theater. Comparing theater to more interactive types of entertainment, few younger people can sit for long periods of time without nodding off.

3. The theater isn’t “social” yet (as in Social Media). They are experiencing what movie theaters are also experiencing: if you don’t make it “social”, they have to rely on blockbuster movies with special effects, or outrageous comedies featuring bad behavior and potty-mouthed humor to get people to come in droves.

4. While theater is more visual and interactive than reading books for some people, many people complain that theater, like opera, has lost its relevance. Younger people are more apt to reach for a game or a piece of music to touch their emotions, and those genres are easier for them to share with others. It’s a bit more of a stretch when I say to a friend, “It’s like that scene in ‘Taming of a Shrew’” than if I say, “It’s like that line in Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’”.

5. Young people enjoy viewing things at their own pace, such as music, video, and games. Theater is a one-shot deal; you see it, and you have one shot to “get it” and enjoy it. Blink, and you miss something. There is no pause button. I wonder if it’s possible to teach young people in an ADD frenetic world how to slow down and enjoy anything [don't even get me started teaching young people about sex in that regard].

I enjoy the theater. I am also one of those lucky performers who has danced on one of the Bagley Wright stages not once, but several times in the past years. Yet, I am like many in my generation who consider the theater a treat and not a necessity. While I couldn’t live a day without music, I haven’t gotten to the point where I can say I can’t live without theater, and to be honest, I don’t know why. Perhaps this is because I feel that much of my life as a clinician is a type of theater, where real life dramas are being lived out in front of me. And if many of my generation feel the same about theater, I fear that it will die out. Mike Daisey fears this too.

What do you think? Will the American theater die out, one small stage at a time? Will theater only exist in a handful of large scale cities like a charming relic of the past? What can be done to save theater programs and keep actors and actresses gainfully employed?