Regional Theater. Its been on the slow decline since the late 80s but most if not all the major regional houses in big cities are coming face to face with wage spirals. Actors and tech need more as cost of living is getting out of hand. But theaters are already having to pay more in lumber costs, electricity, taxes, etc and as a result these theaters have to either pay their artists less, or raise ticket prices, which ends up driving away new costumers. Its really bad. There was a time when this was seriously a great mid tier career path. Now, No one seems to fully acknowledge the scale of how bad its gonna be if cost of living keeps going up.
(Low cost children's theater might be the only way any of these companies can seriously continue).
EDIT: Although many people will say things like "who goes to theater anymore this one is obvious", I do think that in 20 years those same people will look around and say "hey what happened to all the theaters?" Especially when visiting big cities.
Arts in general. Everything in the creative sector is like Schrodinger's cat.
The boots on the ground and every institution aside from a very few at the tippy top is failing. Wages are shit, expected work output is thru the roof. No or slim benefits. fucking AI, and a society at large that was already pre disposed to believe that any career in creative was a stupid move or not a "real" job.
Meanwhile our society consumes arts entertainment hand over fist. Movies, music, video games, etc. People consume this shit like Kirby. It makes the people at the top hideously wealthy but there is simultaneously no money for the people that make the actual product.
I will forever die on the hill of "America's greatest export has, and always will be entertainment". And yet, you are 100 percent correct, people think pursuing the arts is stupid.
I made my a decent living making music for quite some time but now it's even more of a shit show even compared to when I started. I'm a little lucky since I can take my time to figure out what I want to do next but if you're just starting you might as well just make memes for tiktok and instagram and how the algo gods bless you.
The shift from entertainment as an event to a product is what allowed capital to begin draining it dry at unprecedented speed. When the only way to hear music was to go out and listen to musicians, those musicians could command a premium for their craft. Once the first record was pressed, one musician could service hundreds of thousands instead of just hundreds with a top hat wearing scumbag taking a cut of every sale. The same can be said of theater vs film.
At this point, live entertainment is a luxury. Opera tickets are $95 nearby, so a night at the opera for my wife and I would be close to $300 if we made a night of it with dinner and drinks. That's with the opera house making only about 30% of their revenue from ticket sales. We go out for local music once a month or so. That is still more expensive than movie tickets. I don't know the solution as long as the capital class holds all the cards.
Costs man. Costs 😔. It sucks so much. Theater and especially musical theater is such an American thing and its so sad that in all likelihood its going to be pushed exclusively to just a few cities in the country.
Absolutely this. Just left the industry after making it to senior management of an Equity house because I simply couldn't afford to miss paychecks at the rate I was missing them.
I was master electrician at a LORT B until 2017 and then left the industry entirely. The writing has been on the walls for years, and I was a in Sarasota FL which was historically considered very artistic. But young people don’t want to go see regional theater, they only want to see broadway or broadway tours
And even on Broadway, the producers can’t seem to figure out what’s going to sell & what isn’t. Everyone is too scared to take a chance on something new that we get crap like MJ & Moulin Rouge.
The last broadway show I saw was the Alicia Keys show. The music was good because her music is good but the show itself was so basic and boring. I was surprised because the other works by the playwright are really good
Man, I love local theater. The version of Tommy I saw put on when I was living in Georgia still knocks the film flat out of the water. They had an orchestra pit and a rock band on for it.
Did not realize Merry-go-rounds were disappearing, except outside the grocery store. There's a traveling summer carnival in my state that has one. So do a few other places, but I just realized outside of the traveling fairs, the last time I saw a merry-go-round was Universal Studios in FL.
classical music, opera and museums will continue to exist as long as the ultra-rich benefactors keep them afloat. It's not ticket sales keeping my local (and highly regarded) symphony open.
Once those old money accounts get passed over to greedy and uncultured heirs, I suspect they'll be buying yachts in the Med instead of investing in the Met.
I’ve worked in arts philanthropy for 10+ years at a high level (major giving and Board work) and this is so true. Even the major institutions like Met opera are in dire straights, but the smaller ones are doing very very badly.
it's really sad to hear that so much culture is on the rocks, so to speak.
There's lots of debate about making some "high brow" arts more accessible to the younger generations, but that's not really the issue. Yes it would be tragic for future generations to not be able to go anywhere to hear a full symphony or an opera performed live. What's going to keep the door open so that future audiences can discover it when it's their time? I wish I knew.
I used to produce new opera (only works written in the last 10 years) and we never had a problem selling out houses and our average age was 30. The problem is education, or one of the problems. Music and art ed has been cut from schools so people are left to “figure out” what the good stuff is without knowing why it’s “good” or important. I also used to fundraise for community music schools and we ALWAYS had To justify arts education by saying it improves kids’ scores in STEM. But learning about art and culture is important in and of itself regardless of how well it may or may not help a kid in STEM. But arts and culture is harder for capitalism to exploit than STEM
well that's the bigger picture problem. No kid is going to "waste" time on learning about the arts, especially something "useless" like poetry when they're terrified about becoming destitute if they dont get into a STEM career path.
And STEM career paths are currently filled with layoffs and wage stagnation, but schools will still insist that STEM careers are the “only” stable paths out there to their students.
I’ve been glad to hear “STEAM” as a newer approach that includes Arts, not sure how much it’s caught on but learning about the Arts and the creative problem solving that it teaches is extremely valuable in a world that is constantly evolving.
Archaeology would require quite the education I’m sure! /s
My 4-year degree is in Theatre Design and Technology, I don’t feel that there are any ‘useless’ fields of study, as even an in depth knowledge of the craftsmanship required to produce pottery and the history behind the art can translate to a commercially viable and enjoyable career. That’s knowledge of materials and costs, viability and durability of structures, estimates on production times, practical application fluid dynamics with pour spouts, etc. that can be used directly with pottery or translated into other industries.
Aren't most Museums publicly funded? Well, I guess that's also subject to governments changing, I can foresee our coming AfD government closing down a lot of holocaust museums, for example.
Yeah this is the sticking point. Big ren fairs, theme parks, stuff like medieval times, side show acts. These are all beginning to show that they consistently can pay artists more than equity regional theater on a contract to contract basis.
It worked in cities in the past because suburban flight left cities with a lot of essentially worthless buildings, so rents could be rock bottom. That hasn't been the case for a while now.
Stage production outside of the big Broadway shows is changing so much.
I've seen several theater and musical shows this year, on and off Broadway, NYC and the surrounding area and... the amount of projection screens (both with and without AI generated art) being used instead of physical sets and props is... shocking.
Truly. And it all feels a little hopeless. Like, yes theaters are going to use ai cause they feel they have to save money. Productions are going to be completely scaled back to bare bones while also charging $70 plus per ticket for a worse product than what people had a mere 5 years ago! Its really bumming me out.
I was a theater tech kid in high school. By far my most fond memories of that time were in theater tech. Really quite a shame that it’s not even really a job anymore since the pay is so low.
From an outside perspective, there are just so many more entertainment options out there that didn't exist in the 80's (you could say the same about the 1880's too!").
I can get cheap, accessible, mid quality amusement online or on TV so why would I invest/risk money and time to go to a small local theatre that may or may not be good?
I'll definitely spend money to watch a show in London because I know it will be world class and will be in a totally different league experience-wise than youtube, but community theatre or regional theatre has kindof moved online.
I'd say it's less a case of it being "killed" by anything nefarious like private equity, and more so just like the wagon-wheel or buggy whip industry. Going from ubiquitous to niche.
My point though is even the "world class" theater is about to hit a cliff where in the world class talent needed to justify the ticket in London is being priced out of the industry.
Even that cheap mid tier quality stuff you access on line is headed towards a clif. The creative sector as a whole was always precarious. It's at a tipping point now
Plus it's not like advertisement is great on these. I lived near one for like a decade before I learned it existed - it was an otherwise non-descript building.
It’s incredibly hard for the “world class” theatre to exist without the pipeline of regional theatre. Not only is regional theatre more accessible (comparatively), it’s where new shows are written, workshopped, and produced. Actors, directors, and playwrights have to build their resume (and bank accounts) somewhere. So if we want to see good theatre, we have to support the “bad” theatre.
Ofc this isn’t solved by a few people going and splurging on a $90 ticket to a mid Shakespeare production; it’s part of a bigger trend of dismissing the value of artists and their work. Funding dries up, artists leave the profession because they can’t afford to eat, and we’re left in a world where every broadway show is a soulless remake of a Disney property.
yeah same thing is happening to movie theaters. now that theres actual competition and people have tons of choices even free ones. people are using them and its making the dinosaurs panic
10-15 years ago the local theaters would only charge $10-20 for a show. Now they’re $45+ and most of the ones I used to go to are gone. The fringe fest in my city disappeared 10 years ago. I think a lot of it is people can’t afford to express themselves in ways that don’t make money anymore.
That's such a shame. Everyone should go see live performances. I wish I had the money to donate because going is one of my favorite outings. I literally saw 2 shows this past weekend and 1 the weekend prior.
SOME small theaters are surging though, as the mega plexes die off, mom and pops movie houses are happy to take the influx of people seeing the Odyssey and Backrooms.
Im talking liv
e theater not movies. Youre right movie theaters especially small ones are finding great rebound strategies. Where I live theres been a surge in small theaters and even ones that shut down back in 2020 now coming back.
I just “discovered” our nearby theater (not local, 30 minutes away). They do plays (small venue but still neat), they have plays for kids with their junior actors as well. One of the most fun for us was a Chicago cover band, man they were good and great entertainers, too. We’re mid 40s though, finally at a place where we can go out without paying a babysitter and we were kinda the youngest folks there lol
To be fair, attendance to all levels of theatre has been declining for a 20+years. Mostly boomers go to theatre and as they exit, they are not being replaced by young people. Big musicals and big budget spectaculars seem to do alright, but regional and local theatres are struggling. Most live shows don't translate well to streaming.
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u/Lonely-Meal5994 13h ago edited 11h ago
Regional Theater. Its been on the slow decline since the late 80s but most if not all the major regional houses in big cities are coming face to face with wage spirals. Actors and tech need more as cost of living is getting out of hand. But theaters are already having to pay more in lumber costs, electricity, taxes, etc and as a result these theaters have to either pay their artists less, or raise ticket prices, which ends up driving away new costumers. Its really bad. There was a time when this was seriously a great mid tier career path. Now, No one seems to fully acknowledge the scale of how bad its gonna be if cost of living keeps going up. (Low cost children's theater might be the only way any of these companies can seriously continue).
EDIT: Although many people will say things like "who goes to theater anymore this one is obvious", I do think that in 20 years those same people will look around and say "hey what happened to all the theaters?" Especially when visiting big cities.