Newsflash: Theater is Alive and Well

Harlequin Productions produces modern, cutting-edge shows alongside classics like the 1955 show, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" proving the timeless nature of theater.
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Submitted by Harlequin Productions

“The theater is the only institution in the world which has been ‘dying’ for four thousand years and has never succumbed.”

~ John Steinbeck

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Audiences are attending live theater performances in record numbers all across the country.

I continue to hear rumblings that live theater is a dying art form. Even many theater people I’ve encountered tend to subscribe to the idea that the art form is somehow fading away. I saw an article online last week listing 10 things theater can do to “save itself,” as if the entire institution is lying on a hospital bed with IV’s futilely pumping government grants into its shriveling veins, ready to take its final breath at any moment. This image couldn’t be any further from reality. The fact is that live theater is more popular, profitable, and relevant than it has ever been in its multi-thousand year history. Theater is simply not at risk. And here’s why.

Theater is almost incomprehensibly old. The Ancient Greeks dedicated incredible resources to constructing theaters capable of holding 10,000-20,000 audience members. It has remained an important source of human expression for thousands of years, in many civilizations. However, theater has enjoyed repeated revolutions in the past 150 years (a blink of an eye compared to how old it is) such as the creation of Broadway in the late 1800’s and the American Little Theater Movement in the mid 20th century. At that time, theater in America was largely centralized in New York and a few other large cities. Then came a period of little theaters (now called “community theaters”) sprouting up in towns and cities all over the country. By the end of the 1990’s the nation had gone from less than 200 of these little theaters to over 1,200 in less than 50 years. This is an incredibly recent development, especially considering the vast history of theater. Theater has been with us for thousands of years, yet has never been more immediately available, nor more of an active part of so many communities –large and small– as it is right now.

It is claimed that movies and television are a stake in theater’s heart. When drive-in movies became big, many people thought that they would represent the end of stage theaters. But while theater has been around since before domesticated cattle, drive-in movies couldn’t stay popular past the 80’s. Meanwhile, movie theaters are now seeing fewer and fewer patrons and are turning to gimmicks such as attempting a revival of the 3D movie experience to regain its crowds. 8 million fewer movie tickets were sold in America in 2013 than in 1995. At the same time, broadcast television audiences have dropped drastically as people turn en masse to Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube from the comfort of their beds. Now we have television shows being made exclusively for online viewing. It’s actually television that’s at risk – not theater– as the laptop and the tablet slowly conquer the tube. And now that the public tends to prefer watching movies on tiny screens at home, where are they going when they go out? That’s right, theater ticket sales remain on the rise.

Harlequin Productions current play, the 1955 classic "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" proves the timeless nature of theater.
Harlequin Productions current play, the 1955 classic “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” proves the timeless nature of theater.

Theatre Communications Group estimates that, in 2012, the approximately 1,782 professional not-for-profit theater companies in America brought 36.7 million audience members to 211,000 performances, created more than 123,000 jobs and contributed nearly $2 billion to the U.S. economy. However, as the report says, “The real economic impact is far greater than $2 billion, because theatre-goers frequently dine at restaurants, hire babysitters, etc.” Two more points to consider: virtually none of these theaters existed 50 years ago, and keep in mind that these statistics came in at a time of economic recession.

I’m not sure where this idea that theater is “dying” comes from. Perhaps simply because it is so darn old. But theater is ageless. Theater is live storytelling. It cannot be replicated and there is no replacement. Music will always be better live and in person and so will stories. It’s as if we keep looking back at some “golden age” of theater, when the fact is that more people are seeing theater now than any other time in history. Live theater is more of an active part of our communities than it’s ever been and is more of a force for social change than ever before. And yet some people talk as though this ancient form of expression is somehow going away? Don’t give in to the hype…theater simply isn’t going anywhere.

Olympia is home to a particularly active theater community. This month, Harlequin Productions is presenting the 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, which itself is a perfect example of the timelessness of live stories. The play remains just as relevant today as it examines themes such as superficiality, greed, deception, and repression of desires. The play is sponsored by Heritage Bank. Visit harlequinproductions.org for tickets and see this true American classic, and celebrate the timelessness and immortality of live theater.

Heritage bank

“The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but also the return of art to life.”

~ Oscar Wilde

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