Mid-sized Theatres
Arne Zaslove has some good advice for Seattle's mid-sized theaters.
It's refreshing to see an article that doesn't complain about the lack of public funding, but rather offers some creative suggestions for helping to stabilize these companies. At Shunpike, this has been our creed for some time. Arts groups need to get creative about funding, that's for sure. But they also need to be unique in their mission. What makes them necessary? This is a question most arts groups have a hard time answering. For example, Zaslove writes:
In Seattle, where there were so many theaters, the lines between niches began to blur. ACT no longer had a corner on modern works, as every theater with a literary manager on the payroll sought out the next important playwright. Gay and ethnic themes could be found on the mainstages, robbing the Alice B. and the Group Theater of their exclusive mandates
"Exclusive mandate" is, in my opinion, a euphemism for "mission statement." Every arts group should have an exclusive mandate, otherwise why exist? What are you providing that people can't get elsewhere? Sure, many "gay and ethnic themes" have gone mainstream, but what niches aren't being served by today's arts organizations. Taproot, as one of the commenters notes, does well for itself by focusing on a niche.