3/18/2023 0 Comments Texans moneyclip![]() Woodward says to survive now, theaters need to gear their programming toward a younger, more diverse audience, as the country's demographics continue to shift. Currently, Woodward said, theaters get very little money from the government for education programs and workforce development programs, even though most theaters do some form of both. Woodward said theaters need to look beyond the normal annual subscriptions or big money donors and hunt for every dollar they can. They've gotten serious about merchandise. Here it's being rehearsed at the Dallas Theater Center.Īll of this has forced his team to become savvy about nearly every part of the business. JerSean Golatt for NPR The play "Trouble in Mind," written by Alice Childress, premiered off Broadway in 1955 - and ON Broadway in 2021. He said that $200 spent on the musical "Hamilton" may mean patrons don't spend additional money to see something more experimental. "'Hamilton' comes in and that sucks, like, millions of dollars of ticket-buying audience," Woodward said. There is sports, gaming and streaming television – plus 22 Broadway shows that tour regional theaters around the country. Theaters everywhere also now face more competition for the arts consumer's dollar. The Dallas Theater Center's two theaters in separate locations played to an audience of 100,000 Texans annually pre-pandemic, and the center won a regional Tony Award in 2017.ĭespite this history and the area's generous donors, Woodward, the head of DTC, said subscriptions are now down over 60%. Today, the Dallas Theater Center anchors the Dallas Arts District, which includes more than 20 square blocks of museums, sculpture gardens, a symphony, an opera it bills itself as the largest contiguous urban arts center in the United States. The draws to the city don't just include the jobs, the Cowboys or the barbecue – but its growing and vibrant cultural scene.ĭallas is credited with sparking the American Regional Theater movement 75 years ago, when Margo Jones opened the first modern residence theater in 1947. In recent years, the city has seen an influx of big corporate headquarters, and nearly a million new residents in less than a decade, according to the 2020 census. ![]() Interestingly, if there's a place that epitomizes the growth of regional theater, that place is in Cornyn's Texas – especially Dallas. JerSean Golatt for NPR Rehearsal at the Dallas Theater Center on Oct. " I trust her," Klobuchar told NPR over Zoom. Frank explained that she couldn't do virtual concerts which meant they had no revenue and might have to close. A phone call from Dayna Frank – the proprietor of First Avenue, one of the Minneapolis music venues where Prince began his career – made Klobuchar leap into action. Klobuchar said that, in many ways, it was a love of the late artist Prince that awakened her to the importance of supporting local venues. That's the reality that brought Klobuchar and Cornyn together. It is important for theaters to stay open not just for arts' sake, but because they have a profound effect on their local economies, helping support local restaurants, tourism, and other businesses. "When audiences are shrinking, temptation to try to produce much more popular shows, which could keep us from producing some of the new work." Theaters are also going to have to be much savvier about their long-term growth, Eyering said, which doesn't necessarily mean just repeating the same old classics. JerSean Golatt for NPR Rehearsal of "Trouble in Mind" at the Dallas Theater Center on Oct. Eyering said that in order to keep doors open now, theaters need to keep innovating on their stages and as part of their business model. But that infusion of government money was key, and tied to the worst days of the pandemic theaters know they can't rely on that sort of funding happening again. Theaters also helped themselves during that time, creating innovative virtual performances and other programming that kept audiences invested in their work. Without that federal money, non-profit theater as we know it would have died, said Teresa Eyering with the Theater Communications Group "There were a slew of government programs – I call them the alphabet soup." Woodward listed them off: "Payroll Protection Plan or PPP. "The federal government has been a huge partner in this,'' said Jeffrey Woodward, managing director of the Dallas Theater Center. Their partnership resulted in $16 billion for theaters, music venues and other cultural institutions as part of the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, run by the Small Business Administration. ![]() Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, likely saved hundreds of regional theaters across the country from closing as a result of the pandemic shutdowns. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, and Sen. In one of the big surprises of the pandemic, the "let's put on a show!" spirit from Sen.
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