Make Theatre More Diverse by Improving Accessibility
Niki Hatzidis, Features Editor
Conversations with my theater community during the pandemic have overwhelmingly revolved around the hope that theater will return; more importantly, the hope that it returns differently. The truth is that the Broadway theater model was not working for most of the artists in New York for a myriad of reasons, from cost to accessibility to content being too safe or commercial.
Throughout the last few years, the complaint about theater by theater artists themselves was that it was catered too much to tourists and not to the community.
I have conflicting thoughts about this which I will address later. A trend we have also seen is that theater can only be accessed by a certain few and that ultimately puts its very existence in danger. The very culture around the theater in this country has to change. Full stop.
Let me paint a picture for those not familiar with the New York theater scene. You have Broadway with its high production value of well-known musicals, mostly starting, if you’re lucky, at $75 dollars a seat. Then you have the off-broadway theaters producing both new and old, mostly old, plays and some new musicals too. These tickets can be a little less at $50 a pop sometimes $35. Then you have the downtown fringe scene with emerging and passionate artists breaking their backs and their bank accounts to put up some innovative and courageous storytelling. Sometimes really good, other times not. It’s a mixed bag that is extremely accessible at tickets ranging from 15-25 dollars.
The scene lives up to its name of having many different types of productions on stage. The only problem is the third group doesn’t get much of a chance to reach the top and they barely make any money.
I have a theory about this structure. We simply do not value theater in this country as much as some other countries in the world do. I will talk about the UK since I have lived there for a number of years. I can safely say that the British public goes to see theater as often as we go to see the newest Blockbuster, probably even more. It is simply embedded in the culture. Chances are your town, or one neighboring you will have a theater producing content, especially around Christmas.
During Christmas in the UK, there are literally thousands of Pantos produced. These are usually glammed up versions of children’s stories like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty with shiny costumes, singing, dancing, and a bit of cheese. It is a huge part of Christmas. Most theaters probably make enough to support their productions for the following year from one Panto run alone.
Kids learn to go to the theater at a young age, from family outings to their school field trips. I worked in a children’s theater in the center of London and local schools arranged trips to the theater multiple times a year. They would even pair it with their curriculum. If we put on The Velveteen Rabbit, they would have read The Velveteen Rabbit in class. Theater in Education companies are a big industry in the UK, where actors perform in the schools themselves. Theater for families is affordable, especially with free or discounted tickets for people under 26 or students.
There is a big festival in Scotland you might have heard of called the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Companies from all over the UK, Europe, and sometimes farther, come to perform in a renowned fast-paced festival. A lot of college theater companies bring a show to Edinburgh. It is also an opportunity to get great reviews and even get a show scouted for the West End.
The theater is also subsidized by the government there, meaning that it is easier for artists to get grants and funding to produce their work. And the quality of these productions is wide-ranging, all of them interesting, unique, and absolutely affordable. I saw a show for £7 once which is a little over $10 dollars. They have a National Theater that produces plays by British playwrights.
Though the West End isn’t perfect, they have some of the same problems sounding diversity there as we do here, but I overwhelming found theater more affordable there with a much more diverse audience. I say One Man Two Governors for 20 pounds, last minute. I would be remiss if I did not mention that the government there is also making threats to cut arts funding but I think the fact that they have had them at all says a lot.
The reason I have no doubt in my mind that theater will survive in the UK is that it is so commonplace. It is so easy to go see something interesting and new there. If you grew up there or lived there for even a year you would get exposed to theater one way or another. This means that generations of artists have been introduced and inspired by the theater. I know I have.
So this brings me back to us here. It has been a worry of mine, and others in the theater community, that if we are not exposing young people to the theater, who will continue to tell stories? If a night at the theater for a family of four costs about $400 for tickets and fees alone, not including transportation or parking, then who is really going to the theater? It’s not children from low-income family’s, it’s not those kids whose parents have to work nights. It’s not people who are living paycheck to paycheck just trying to pay their bills every month. If we are constantly cutting the arts and access to performances, how are we cultivating and encouraging new voices?
A career in theater has become a possibility for only an elite few. What kind of person is able to participate in a fellowship or internship that barely pays minimum wage? The people who have access to these opportunities are usually ones that have financial support elsewhere. The companies offering these opportunities are cutting off a whole group of people. Then there is education, training, and certifications that require time, means, and opportunity. Who is really able to afford a year at an accredited acting school?
Then there are the performers fighting to tell their stories. They also require time, means, and opportunity. If you’re fighting to stay afloat in an expensive city like New York, who can really afford to participate in the fringe theater? These theaters and companies that mean to be a platform for the under-represented but cannot guarantee a living wage or even a portion of the box office. Do you blame an artist for saying, “no thank you, I need to pay for food?”
The big-budget broadway shows attract tourist willing to spend the money on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to New York, they might even see a show touring in their area, that is some exposure. Is this better than no exposure at all? I’m conflicted here, because I recognize that big commercial musicals bring in a lot of money for regional theaters. It has become very clear that these shows are heavily whitewashed too.
So is it surviving the community to show them stories and people they are already comfortable and familiar with? What happened to theater being a mechanism to open a community’s eyes to new experiences, ideas, and people?
It is a type of exposure but it still costs more than what most people can’t afford. So when it cost is on the mind of a patron and a movie at a cinema or streaming site is more feasible, who will be going to the theater to see a show?
The arts all over the country are facing challenges with a pandemic that prohibits gathering. A component that pretty much defines the industry. When it is safe to come back and producers are trying to make back the money that they have lost in the last year, how much will they list ticket prices for?
Some tickets for shows were already the cost of rent, one show comes to mind that only recently has been made available to the masses. Who’s to say that when seats are blocked out for social distancing and companies need to make back losses that tickets will only be available to a certain class of people?
When theater comes back, we need to fight in the other direction. We need to challenge our current culture when it pertains to the arts; its value and its worthiness to continue. We need to fight for more arts funding, for more creative programs in schools, for a community approach to accessibility.
Could the US have a National Theater that they are proud of and work toward preserving? We want more diversity, but how are we going to get that if more people are not exposed to theater? If we aren’t encouraging creativity? If we don’t make it a viable career option?
If we fail at this we might not have stories to experience, we might not gather, we might lose out in the community that theater and only theater facilitates. We should be restructuring its foundation now before it becomes something unattainable to the majority of people. Theatre was always meant for the masses, not just an elite few who can afford it.
Niki Hatzidis is an award-nominated playwright, writer and actor based in NYC. She is the editor of the features page. NikiHatzidis.com