Redefining the value of theatre

Because I love jumping into a fray . . . .

Theatre doesn't have a collective value, only an individual one.

My life has been touched by theatre.   Not a particular theatre.  Not a particular show.  Theatre taught me that someone could make a living producing art.

(And no making that living isn't easy but it is do-able)

If your reading this, theatre has probably touched your life as well.  Maybe even changed it.

Maybe it helped you to become more expressive.

Maybe it helped you meet more friends, or even the love of your life.

Maybe you saw a show that just for a second made you re-consider the world and your place in it.

My point is that the value that theatre provides is almost always a deeply personal one.

So maybe instead of trying to pinpoint a particular set of values for theatre we should just emphasis that theatre has VALUE.

And the only way a person will ever find out what particular value theatre has for them is just by giving it a try.

Our mission as theatre folks has to be to convince the world to give our shows a chance.

We have to be an open door constantly inviting a nervous public in.

We have to be relentless in finding ways to get people inside that door in terms that doesn't sacrifice our artistic ideals.

Because if 100 people decide to give your theatre a try in a given night then maybe, just maybe, 15 of them will suddenly find that theatre has value TO THEM.

Can you imagine what a gift that would be to those 15 people?

Comments

[Xan]

Nice! Can I use some of this language in a fundraising letter? (I'll offset it as "here's what a friend said about theater")

[Xan]

Nice! Can I use some of this language in a fundraising letter? (I'll offset it as "here's what a friend said about theater")

[Don Hall]

That pretty much rocks, AT.

[Nick Keenan]

I don't know Adam, I would have thought you'd be more into this thread. It's, after all, an attempt to find strong marketing language for the industry as a whole - language stronger than the word "value". To stop at saying that theater has VALUE sounds a lot like Walmart branding to me, and it's not consistent with the down deep reasons that new audience members keep coming theater.

That said, I of course agree that we need to have a big open door and keep bringing the new audience in, one at a time, and make sure that our work is good enough to sell new audience on the value of theater every time.

This is a conversation that could bring focus and fire and inspiration to an entire community - those are the tools, with deeply resonant work, that we need to build a culture of excitement around the theater to make your 100 => 15 equation start working.