From Crosscut, May 3, 2007
An article titled They shoot mid-sized theaters around these parts by Arne Zaslove notes that with the demise of Tacoma Actors Guild, Seattle has lost eight small mid-sized theater companies in the past few years. This veteran of the theater scene explores the causes and cures for this unfortunate local custom.
6 comments:
Vert timely. Check out the first comment on that article:
"In this day and age, why not use the internet to collect small donations (less than $100) from thousands of potential Patrons of the Arts to generate $100,000s.
With a board of directors paying attention to the community (not necessarily repeating the same old same old) a small to midsize arts group should be able to build a million dollar endowment and enough to continue putting on good works.
I would have contributed $10 to keep the Bathhouse going. Get 10,000 others and you have $100k, get us to give $25 and you have $250K. I am sure some would give $100-$250. Also, we get to be involved through regular communication and feedback."
What about this approach? Better to solicit many small contributions or a few big ones?
Also this article in Seattle Weekly.
"Tacoma" is hardly Seattle. That would be like being surprised that a "Gresham" theatre company shut down.
Anonymous 2:20: Look at the big picture. It's the trend that's important to think about here.
So does Portland have any mid-sized theatres? Would ART be mid-sized or large? And qre we talking # of seats, # of subscribers, or pay scale? How does this article reflect on Portland, which is obviously a much different market?
Portland suffers from a lack of mid-size venues. It's either Theater! Theater! or the Performing Arts Center. Common Grounds or World Trade Center. 60 seats or 600. There isn't much in between. That can make it hard for a lot of companies to take the next big step from being a little start-up in a 75 seat blackbox to a mid-size regional company selling 300 seats. There just aren't a lot of good 200 seat theaters spaces around.
Look at companies like Profile, triangle and Stumptown. Sometimes they seem to be outgrowing their venues, right? But where can they go?
So I think that's a big part of it. It's hard for smaller companies to grow.
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