Value of Theatre
Really good post on Theatre Forte about what’s important about theatre, about why an audience member might choose to go to a live play instead of the movie theatre or staying home to watch a DVD. I encourage you to read it and the comments folks posted about it.
What is the Value of Theatre?
by Matt Slaybaugh
First of all, this post is part of a Theatre Think Tank initiative - a group effort to crack this nut. Please also visit Theater for the Future, Rat Sass, Theatre Ideas, Parabasis, The Next Stage, Steve on Broadway, Theatre is Territory, Freedom Spice in the New Mash-Up World, Mike Daisey, An Angry White Guy in Chicago, Bite & Smile, That Sounds Cool, A Rhinestone World, GreyZelda Land, On Theatre and Politics, and The Devil Vet.
And be sure to check back here for additions to that list. (UPDATE: There’s a better list here.)
What is the “value” of theatre? We need to figure out what it is that theatre does well and better than other art/entertainment forms. Then we need to figure out a positive way to describe those things to people who do not already identify themselves as theatregoers.
Theatre is local, and a group experience, and exchange does happen. Yes. And those are good examples because they are qualities that theatre excels at, even though they’re not necessarily things you can’t get elsewhere. Are those, then, the qualities that we can leverage into the concrete end-result we’re hoping for - greater attendance? (Or is that the gold at the end of the rainbow? Is it even bigger? A sustainable model? I think that’s another discussion.)
What does make theatre different, and, indeed, why WOULD anyone choose it over NetFlix? Is relevance the key? Obviously, we hope to make our art relevant to our potential audience members. So, we choose universal themes and/or write about current events. That’s one advantage of theatre - it can be quick. But that’s not unique, the news is quicker, so are radio talkshows. I don’t think we can definitely prove that theatre is better at being relevant than books, movies, etc.
Relevance is important, but it also sounds like importance. I bet if you ask the “great unwashed masses” if theatre is “important” in the world, they’d say yes. If you asked them if they go, well, we know the answer. I think the symphony is important here in my hometown, but that motherfucker’s about to go out of business, and it’s at least in part because people like me don’t go often enough.
What about form & content? When we talk about relevance, we’re primarily talking about the content of the play and I’d like to avoid that a bit in this discussion. Certainly the content of our work has a great affect on ticket sales, but for the moment, we’re searching for qualities that you can find in most - if not all - theatre, community or professional, big or small, straight or … musical.
(At this point I have to tangent and say that it’s quite possible there is an important split somewhere. I find my company’s has very little in common with the latest Broadway smashtacular. At some point, we may wish to acknowledge that some of that stuff is in a different category than what we’re working towards.)
So what do we sell (if we are going to go ahead admit that this is in part about selling the art)? What do we emphasize? Believe it or not, my company found a really great marketing company to give us some Clarity. Seriously, that’s what the process is called. You can look them up on the web at www.youngisaac.com. So, we’ve spent a lot of time examining who we are and what we do and what we want our potential and current customers to do about it.
One lesson that Artie Isaac has emphasized is that we shouldn’t hide who we are or try to trick the consumer. We can’t act like our art isn’t kind of like school or church sometimes. Yes, that turns some people off, but we’re never going to win them as loyal customers by tricking them into showing up. It’s much better to admit we’re kind of like school and church, and realize that there are actually a lot of people who like school and church. If we can get all of those people in the house, we don’t need the others. It’s like the Republicans not worrying about the middle, and just focusing on turning-out all of their base. (And it’s the opposite of John Kerry dressing up like a hunter and trying to pretend he’s not a rich dude who loves his jet-ski.”
We’ve learned things from Artie that have already been talked about on theatrenet in the context of this discussion. Here’s a list.
This one is very specific to us, but not true of all theatre if you’re talking about where the artists come from. Of course, if you’re talking about the fact that it always happens in the room where you’re sitting, it is true for all theatre, no matter what. In that way all theatre is locally grown. The fact that our art is locally grown is a strength. It makes us different, even from other theatres in the area.
The fact that our art is live and “risky” and not canned makes us different, even from the Broadway Series, and a lot live music. There’s nothing between us and them.
Yes, that’s a strength. We can’t hide the fact that going to the theatre takes more effort than renting a DVD, but not everyone actually wants to sit at home. We need to sell to the people who WANT to leave the house.
This one is also not true of all theatre. I personally think that’s too bad, but it’s a personal preference. Maybe it should be more like this …
Not quite the same as being live. You’re in the room, so are the actors. There’s an exchange of energy and contact. You’re attitude and actions actually affect the performance in real time. And of course, so theatres make it easier to not-ignore the art by creating ways for people to connect with the artists.
There’s tons of research, technical and anecdotal, that shows that people want to talk to each other at the theatre, that they want more time and forums to discuss the dhow with each other afterwards. People also want something to talk about later on. Call it cocktail party chatter. And theatre is novel, it gives you something new to discuss, a little bit of status.
This is a diagram from one of our Young Isaac sessions. The kind of theatre I like goes somewhere in the top-left box, the one that says “Move Me”. Not that people who prefer comforting entertainment don’t want to be moved, but the further you get to the bottom of the chart, the more likely it is that they want to be manipulated into emotion response in a perfectly predictable way. Maybe they wanna cry or cheer, but they probably don’t want to learn anything in the process.
I think we just discussed participation, didn’t we. If you’re in the room, you’re a part of it. You can’t help it. Watching DVDs or movies, or even live music, you can turn away and ignore it. I suppose you could try to ignore the play in front of you, but you might get kicked out if you distract others.
So, theatre - here & now, community experience, participation, magic all the time, gets you out of the house. Awesome. Now, how do we talk about this? How do we communicate this? Bumper stickers?
Ben Cameron (Remember him?) does has some ideas on this as well.
One theatre I know has distilled its three primary values into three talking points, capturing them small cards wallet sized cards that can be easily pulled out mid conversation when precise verbiage is needed and precise supporting facts and figures are warranted. Every Board member has one. It clearly distills the value that they want to convey, and together, by singing the same songs in the same language, by consistently using the same three “key messages” as media trainers would say, the entire organization is working to build critical consciousness in its community. Let’s carry it further: if we really want to make that difference, it’s time to make those cards not only for every Board member, but for every actor. Every technician, every administrator, every custodian in our employ. No matter what the media does or doesn’t do for us, we have the power to build the consciousness from the bottom up.
Assume he’s talking about “every actor. Every technician, every administrator, every custodian” everywhere in every theatre. Does the theatre as a whole have a mission? What is it? Is it the something we can all get behind?
You know who has a similar problem? Democrats. Oh yes, oh yes. For a really fantastic explanation of how democrats fail to “frame their ideas” read some George Lakoff. The general idea is that Democrats (and theatre-people) need to find a way of describing their vision of the world (and/or their art) in a way that is exciting and easily understood. Republicans sound like their ideas are simple, but (if you’re talking about real Republicans) they’re not. It’s just that a lot of very smart people have spent a lot of time and effort to figure out how to distill their complicated ideas into simple, direct, passionate statements of values. It wouldn’t hurt for a bunch of theatre people to do the same. (If only we could find a group of smart, engaged people who share ideas about theatre with each other in public on a regular basis. Hey! What just a darn minute …)
I don’t think I have any ideas of how to spread this gospel of the theatre that are any better than Ben’s. I really think it’s a matter of repeating it over and over and over. To each other, to other people, to our audiences. We need to equip our audiences with the words and the way to spread this message for us. I’ve heard plenty of true blue theatre lovers sputter out, “There’s just something about being there …” Which isn’t wrong, it’s just ineffective.
All together now! Theatre is a communal experience that only happens here & now, that enables participation, that is magic all the time, and that gets you out of the house.
Kind of a clumsy slogan.
Thoughts? Ideas? To the comment-mobile!
This is the end of the post for now. We’ll continue to delve into this further all together across all these blogs today and in the days to come.
As always, thank you for visiting. I can’t wait to see what the others are writing.