Industry Pro

As news of additional cuts comes from more councils in the UK, in the US, a new piece of legislation looks to support the still struggling live entertainment industry as it emerges into the new normal. As evidence of the need for such action, we’ve got stories about layoffs at a New Jersey NPR station, as well as another urgent fundraising plea.

In a sign of an industry on the rebound, Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles is getting ready to announce a return of programming at the Mark Taper Forum, where production was paused last year while the organization went through a budget crunch. Additionally, following the casting of a Black actress in the role of Juliet, an upcoming West End production of Romeo and Juliet from the Jamie Lloyd Company started dealing with racist backlash online - we’ll show you how the company responded.

This week, stories abound about the impact funding can have on the arts - from the UK, an editorial about how the collapse of funding for the creative industry was predictable. In the US, we have stories of large gifts making a huge impact - no-cost rentals at 59E59 - as well as changes to the way Florida is apportioning their arts budget.

The storm of openings has begun on Broadway, as we prepare for what will be an even busier April leading into the conclusion of the 2023-2024 Broadway season. Amidst that storm, great work continues off-Broadway, as Cara Joy David reminds us when she pays a visit to Dead Outlaw.

As the unionization wave continues to move through theatrical workers across the country, two developments last week highlighted the movement: the Public Theatre declined to voluntarily recognize the unionization effort of their workers, and workers at the Goodman Theatre sought their own union affiliation.

After what has felt like weeks of covering cuts in funding to UK Arts budgets, some great news on two fronts from across the pond - a recent study of 2023 ticket buyers in the UK found that more than half of them were first time theatregoers.

As theatre marketers continue to try and find new ways to market their shows - and in a very crowded Broadway season new ways to break through the noise - there is a strong trend to chase the next shiny thing. One of those elements of marketing that is newer to the marketplace is the use of influencers.

The restructuring of the industry continues - in North Carolina, Raleigh has lost one of its major institutions (for the time being) as North Carolina Theater suspends their 2024 season and files for bankruptcy. The labor movement continues to notch wins in New York, as the Atlantic Theater workers have voted to join IATSE.

Another theatre has announced their closure, with Cutting Ball in San Francisco becoming the latest to look at their financial situation and decide that there was no viable path forward. We’ll have more coverage here and in our marketing update about the things that are working for theatres that have found a way to thrive in the new normal.

AEA members voted to authorize a strike against the Broadway League of the development agreement - while this doesn’t mean the union will call a strike, it does give them another bargaining chip in their ongoing negotiations with the League. Regionally, we have a lot of stories of announced retirements and new leaders stepping into roles.

Regionally, a few new leaders in high profile positions across the country - including Nicole A. Watson at Playwrights Center, Megwyn Sanders-Andrews at at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, and Geneé Coreno at WAM. In the UK, a new union agreement for Equity and the ITC, and in Toronto, a tale of haves and have nots in the recovery.

This week, the NEA announced $32 million in grants to institutions across the country, and while these grants are going to be vitally important to the groups that received them, it is just a drop in the bucket to the economic impact that arts organizations have on their local communities.

January is often a rough month in the theater industry - there are fewer shows running, audiences are reluctant to venture out into the winter weather, there is typically a slate of Broadway closings, and companies are taking stock of their financial situation following the closure of (typically) popular holiday productions.

Cara Joy David explores the concerning trend that suburban audiences are less willing to travel into the city center to see shows due to a perceived increase in crime in the city, leaving audiences feeling less safe getting in and out of shows. In the UK, funding cuts force theatres to innovate in ways to stave off closure and grow their audience.

Cara Joy David looks at the stage door experience at the musicals currently running on Broadway, we check in with various insiders hopes for Broadway in 2024, and we look at Dallas and Denver - where the recovery has taken different paths. Across the pond, the National Theatre Wales deals with a complete funding cut from their arts council.

A few exciting data points to close out the year - the first being that Broadway audiences this past season were younger and more diverse than in seasons past. This is a bright spot in a season that saw a bumpy box office. A new study from SMU DataArts also looked at the amount of funding that went out to arts organizations during the pandemic.

The transformation continues to be global - after US based writers and actors won concessions from the film industry, stage performers in Australia are looking to increase their own pay. In response to funding changes at the government level, the English National Opera is moving out of London and heading to Manchester.

Cara Joy David dives into the eligibility decision surrounding Gutenberg!, and some good news on the regional front - success in one of the emergency fundraising campaigns at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Not only were they able to save their season, but exceeded their goal in a way that makes future planning possible and the full staff has been retained.

This week in the newsletter, we’ve got a look at how high schools can win a chance to be the first to produce Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Cara Joy David takes us through the recent ruling in the Hal Luftig Company bankruptcy, and the Wall Street Journal takes a look at how some regional theatres are thriving in a challenging environment.

As we prepare for the parade (and we’ve got your guide on the Broadway performances below), we also get some good news out of the UK where Panto producers report that ticket sales are trending strongly in the right direction for the holiday tradition.

The funding models are changing - we’ve known this for more or less the whole time the industry has been re-emerging from the pandemic, and the struggles of regional theatres large and small as temporary government funding tied to the pandemic came to an end - but how are theatres in England doing one year after the reshuffle of national arts?

More data out last week about the impact of the arts on the economies of the cities and small towns that many regional theatres call home - and the results show that theatre not only contributes to the cultural life of a community, but is contributing significantly to the economic life of many small towns.

Some of our more significant stories this week come from across the pond: the first being that a new survey indicates that the vast majority of women working in theatre don’t feel like they are seeing an increase in opportunities. While the data comes from the UK, I think we would find a lot of anecdotal agreement in the US industry as well.

With the National Theatre announcing experimenting with an earlier evening curtain time, Cara Joy David explores whether a similar experiment will be making its way to Broadway. New leadership at the Raven Theatre in Chicago, and New Rep in Boston has announced that they will be closing their doors after 40 years.

From the start of this newsletter in the pandemic, we’ve been covering the evolution of the performing arts industry, and the articles we’ve compiled this week underscore that evolution in a big way. The first of those articles being the very question on if the nonprofit model is still working for arts organizations anymore.