"With the shuttering of these companies, a substantial piece of the soul of this community just went dark. Theatre has an unmatched potency. That’s why it costs more. What if you went to see 12 live theatre performances a year, one a month? Too much? Cut it in half. Call it six shows a year, one every other month. I promise, you’ll be happier and smarter. I swear. My hand on a Playbill."
"Thee-eight-her"
By By Ben Tyler
IIn valley theatre there is a serious disturbance in the force. The pause that depresses…
On the evening of Tuesday, February 12th I received a disturbing email from Matthew Weiner, the Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Phoenix. He was letting me, and many others know, that the theatre company was canceling the remaining two shows in their season. They were leaving The Herberger Theatre, their home stage of over 20 years. However, they weren’t closing up permanently; they were taking a self-imposed pause. Actors Theatre is one of Arizona’s major theatre companies. I sincerely hope this is only a pause. So all of us are holding our breath that one potential casualty (Actors Theatre of Phoenix) patches its self up and comes back to life. If they do, I predict they’ll be a better company. It hasn’t killed them yet, and if it doesn’t, it will only make them stronger.
Earlier this season, after 24 years of operation, Arizona Jewish Theatre Company closed. Not a pause, they closed up shop permanently. First, here's a viewpoint from the self-absorbed narcissistic part: these were two Equity companies. For those who don't know, I'll explain. Equity is the stage actor’s union, of which I am a proud member. As a member, you may not work on stage without an Equity contract. Both of these theatre companies are/were Equity theatres. The result is that Equity actors, like me, now have two fewer places to work, out of an already tiny pool of potential employers. Now, here's the most important part. This part affects everyone, whether they know it or not.
With the shuttering of these companies, a substantial piece of the soul of this community just went dark. These two closings went without much notice outside of our compact theatre community. It didn't make the news. After all, it’s not like a sports franchise closed, right? That would impact millions. If the Suns or the Diamondbacks or the Cardinals or even the Coyotes announced that they were canceling play midseason, to take a pause, there would be an outcry! There would be a rending of garments and a gnashing of teeth. I see headlines! Why? A lot more people attend sports; even hockey. The total number of Arizona theatregoers for one month would not equal a single modestly attended D-Backs game, or even renewed hope for the Coyotes.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate sports. I’m a fan. Sport interests more people, and that’s just what it is. But I will say this: theatre has an unmatched potency. That’s why it costs more. Nothing can touch people more than the power of a great story well told. It’s hard wired in our brains. Story telling was one of our earliest rituals. In prehistoric times, it wasn’t long before sitting around the campfire, telling about the days when Wooly Mammoth hunt just couldn’t be told in the seated position. It required getting up on your feet, and voices and sounds and acting, Yes, acting out the story. Most people get that from TV, movies and the Internet today.
Consuming theatre is different. There’s an ancient, deep connection in watching live actors in real time, in the same space, spin a story, comedy or tragedy. Not a comedy or a drama. Drama is not the flip side of comedy, tragedy is. Drama refers to both comedy and tragedy, like the two masks. For some reason we can’t bring ourselves to use the word 'tragedy' these days. It has a different meaning. Today, a busload of nuns and orphans driving over a cliff is a tragedy. These days if you described a film as a tragedy, people would think you just wasted eight bucks and two hours of your life.
Don’t expect me to objective about this. I’ve just seen it happen too many times. I don’t want to get all evangelical here, but many times I’ve seen the uninitiated, both actor and audience, become the initiated. It changes people. That’s what theatre does. Truth, beauty and goodness wrapped in one beautiful package. That’s what theatre is. And we just lost two of its long time purveyors, or if we're lucky, maybe just one. Actors Theatre is on life support and reorganization right now. God willing, they’ll make it. So what both angers and scares the Jameson out of me is change. As Rafiki said to Simba, “Change is hard.”
And then he whacked Simba over the head with a big stick. From the business side, theatre needs a new model, not just here, but nationally. From this point forward this race will be won by the resourceful. They must discover new means and sources of earned income. Unlike gifts and grants, these are things the company has control over. In the non-profit theatre world, the box office is important, but now it’s becoming the most important. On the artistic side, theatres need to offer audiences a balanced diet. By that I mean the new and the familiar, the groundbreaker and the bandwagon.
As I said earlier, there is a disturbance in the force. Arizona Theatre Company is doing The Sunshine Boys, a (gasp!) Neil Simon mainstay. Phoenix Theatre, the home of the musical, is presenting Our Town, by cracky! A company has to find its niche, but just as in nature, too much specialization will kill you. Like most people, I want to be told a story I’ve never heard before, but you gotta slip me one of those old chestnuts every once in a while. That’s just my opinion of course. It only happens to be true.
All art aside, ultimately it is about supply and demand. If enough people attend live, local theatre it will exist. If there isn’t, it won’t. People may watch hundreds of sporting events over the course of a year, but what if you went to see 12 live theatre performances a year, one a month? Ok, that’s a lot, too much. Cut it in half. Call it six shows a year, one every other month. I promise, you’ll be happier and smarter. I swear. My hand on a Playbill.
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