The Narrow-casting Theatre of Tomorrow

The NEA released a study about declining attendance in American theatres.

I've caught wind of some reaction from within the theatre community suggesting that perhaps the producers and artists have drifted away from the audiences - not the other way around. In conjunction with these trends and ideas has been the rise of the idea of the "consumer" of arts, rather than a patron or audience member.

I dunno - maybe we should just quit doing theatre. I'm sure most of the decline in our audiences is due to the irrelevant matter we've been stuffing down our audiences' maw with nary a soda to wash down the dry, indigestible stuff.

But I'm an optimist - always with a keen eye for the way forward. How about this: we could take after the niche-marketing crowd and narrow-cast - have a play created for every individual that comes to our theatre.

Let's call our patron Mr. Art C. Onsumer. The play can be about the more interesting and palatable parts of Mr. Onsumer's life and fantasies, feature products and lifestyles that he endorses (information about which we will solicit via an e-mail survey before he sees the performance), and end the way that is that best affirms for Mr. Onsumer's weltanschauung.

In the narrow-casting theatre of Tomorrow, the most in-demand theatre companies will come to your home and do the performance in your living room; the most loved directors will allow the viewer to pause the action when the phone rings or nature calls. Like reality TV, we can probably do away with writers altogether, and have Mr. Onsumer and his family yell imperatives at the performers, who will comply with grace and wit. Of course, we'll have to make sure that Mr. Onsumer and his children can co-create the experience by joining the performers when the spirit moves them.

Maybe the NEA can just give out free boxes of Cranium or Pictionary to every family. Because a great nation deserves great board games.

In the future, there will be flying cars

Perhaps the reason humankind is so bad at predicting the future is because it's not there.

Happy Holidays!!

Two go out, only one comes back...

I mentioned at some point early in this blog that I would take up the discussion of the split executive in theatre and other performing arts companies (i.e. artistic director/managing director).

This conversation has popped up on the Mission Paradox Blog. I think more can be said about why this dual-role exists, and it might be fun to play devil's advocate and think up some reasons it might be good; it may also be that there are a few criticisms of it that were left out of the Mission Paradox post.

I'll take up some of them anon.

Back on the Soap box

I'm off the diary for the moment and back on the soap box.

This diatribe began as a comment on Andrew Taylor's Artful Manager Blog and spiraled out of control. Man, I love that guy's blog.

You'll have to read the original post - it's better than me describing it. It might help to listen to Taylor's comments about metaphor and structure. Also, his blog is an excellent source for more on this topic, but you can catch it up with threads of it all over the place - try any marketing blog, for instance, and you're bound to come across these ideas: namely, giving away content, and what I call "theatre 2.0" which is a broad concept that involves inter alia the notions of self-curation, self-directed creation or ur-collaboration (everyone throwing things in the soup), and any manner of internet-based interface with your organization.

I feel like such a Luddite when I read these ideas, because I always get this sinking feeling along with the question "how do you pay for professional art without a boundary and little or no state funding?" Given the philanthrocapitalist sentiments sweeping away our financing models and cyberspace sweeping away our production models, what are we to do?

I'm sure I'm simply wont of imagination, but are there resources that take these ideas to the next level and address the nitty gritty of how to create content and support a class of professional artists with no capital resources and giving the art away for free to all and sundry? Aside from augmentation and marketing of the real substance of art, what does the internet have to offer to the hands-on, personal experience of the intrinsic art as a creator and appreciator?

There are two worlds operating in separate vacuums right now - the folks developing the concepts and exploring the rapidly changing cultural landscape and market place; and the world of the day-to-day arts managers who have to plan and implement the next season or the next concert and work with boards who are usually struggling to grasp the basics of marketing and nonprofit financial structures.

The resource I'm looking for is the technical and financial capacity to implement any of these new ideas without imperiling my payroll. Creating Facebook and Youtube experiments uses valuable and scarce time to create projects that simply have no short-to-mid- term ROI, and possibly no significant ROI in the long term. Yes, they help my stakeholders create the experience and build the brand with our company, but there is a fundamental disconnect between something like live theatre and an electronic form of communication that lacks even the person-to-person interaction of a long-distance phone call.