Theatre in New York
p
are so many possibilities in this changing performing arts cityscape.
First off, we can finally almost ignore Broadway completely. It
started with Disney getting a firm hold on 42nd Street. Then staged
versions of movies of questionable merit from the eighties, Best of
______ albums hodged together with feeble narratives and revivals of
revivals became standard Broadway fare. As a young theatre artist, it
was a relief to have the weight of worrying about making it to Broadway
lifted from my shoulders. I'll won't have to wrestle with the near
certain failure I was always warned about because I can never fail to
achieve that which has already faltered and failed and will hopefully
soon be out of its misery.
When Broadway finally dies, I'll be curious to see what this vacuum
does to the theatrical constellation which surrounds it. Will
everything else be sent careening through the listings. Can
Off-Broadway exist without that which it derives it's "off" position?
Ultimately, it doesn't matter because off-Broadway may very well
succumb before Broadway. I say let it all go. Kick Off-Off-Broadway
into the East River while you're at it. Let them all float to sea
together like the bloated flotsam they are. Perhaps then genuine live
performance will surface and grow anew in this culturally fertile
metropolis.
We are a nation which is hostile to theatre. In New York, there are
strong Darwinian forces at work. Broadway has no interest in
supporting Off-Broadway and Off-Broadway has no interest in supporting
Off-Off-Broadway. It wasn't always this way but as resources dwindle,
so do mutually beneficial alliances. It used to be that a company like
The Public or The New York Theatre Workshop would take an interest in
young artists who seemed to push boundaries or show promise. They
would help these up and comers out with resources and cachet. Now they
don't have the resources or the cachet to spare. It's like a forest
where all the trees are too tall because they're in close competition
with each other for the sunlight and they're ready to topple but there
are no saplings under them of sufficient stature to do their work in
the ecosystem when they do fall. No one under the age of thirty-five
makes a living doing theatre in New York and in five years, no one
under the age of forty will make a living in theatre in New York. Just
as our audiences are dying out, so are our professionals.
The perhaps terrifying truth is that, in our current cultural
ecosystem, nothing has to replace the institutions once they go.
America will be totally content if theatre ceeses to exist except in
school plays and history books. By I think something will emerge,
something eye widening and mouth opening, something which blurs
destinctions between subjects and objects, something totally new...
People will rediscover live performance and be excited by it. We will
call it New York Theatre.
TheOperator
As I sit in my apartment, listening to my roommate prepare audition
material for a so-called "edgy" show, I realize that my full
alienation from wanting to "make it" has been completed. "How do
I go back to college," he sings this again and again. Is this the
last stage of the evolution of an art form? Linear, obvious, stupid,
boring, cheesy, fucking retarded lyrics, sung with the utmost
conviction. If I ever write a song like that, please cut my penis off
immediately and feed it to the nearest kangaroo.
P mentioned these "Darwinian forces" that are devouring the rotting
corpse of theater; I think it is crucial to identify exactly what these
forces are. I'd replace the word "Darwinian" with "Market."
Once state funding for artists went away, market forces cut theater in
half As it was abundantly clear that market forces DID NOT SUPPORT the
vast majority of the work, the surviving theaters turned to non-profit
fundraising and charitable contributions to continue their
work....activities that boil down to little more than sophisticated
panhandling.
The surviving for-profit endeavors were consolidated by large-corporate
entities that were sophisticated enough to actually run the business
efficiently. I'm not-as-convinced as P that the for-profit endeavors
will die as easily. They follow strict formulaic models that tend to
show returns, and these family-friendly shows will always draw a
tourist crowd.
Fuck it. You can sit back, analyze, complain, and wait for something
to happen; or you can take an aggressive approach and try to shape the
future of this thing. This requires: 1) accurate analysis, 2)
sufficient capital investment, 3) precise planning, and 4) flawless
execution in order to succeed.
It's time to make it happen.
thecar...@bellyofthebest.com
i think the Op has a good point - these huge, commercial, for-profit
endeavors that seem to signal the ultimate demise of Broadway are
actually for the most part financial successes. take Tarzan - it's a
pure spectacle show with no-name actors, an inflatable set, music by an
aging pop icon, and it sold out its entire Broadway run before it even
started previews. there is certainly a decline happening on Broadway,
but i'm not sure it's one that will eradicate the whole structure from
the NYC performing arts scene. it's just making Broadway less vital to
NYC's arts community.
also, curiously and not entirely on the subject, i was at the Center
for Architecture today - which is essentially one gallery room
dedicated to architecture exhibits. the current exhibit focuses on NYC
arts buildings, and it includes a floor-to-ceiling map of the Boroughs
and the locations of notable arts structures. the only theater that
made the map was Manhattan Theatre Club - their smaller, Off-Broadway
house and not their Broadway theater.
and just to speak of my experience at a not-for-profit Off-Broadway
theater - it's a fickle, fickle world. and i feel vaguely like a
prostitute on a weekly basis as we plan event after party after special
backstage tour for our funders, patrons, and grant-givers. but there
is that need to keep entertaining in order to keep income flowing. i'm
not sure how to get around that. there is also the need to be
innovative and flexible with our programming, but that seems to take a
backseat to the entertaining - aka the capital investment.
so what am i doing? i'm complaining. let's take it to the streets.