Signature Reduces Programming As Hundreds of Non-Profit Theaters Scale Back or Worse

Last month, Signature Theatre announced three pretty exciting offerings for its 2023-2024 season. What slipped a little under the radar was that it was a complete season announcement—the off-Broadway company will only be producing three shows this season. That is down from four last season and at least six productions per season prior to the pandemic. The constriction is another sign of a theater world in crisis. If we don’t turn the tide, millions will miss out on the joy of live theater.

In January, I wrote about how many theaters had returned with reduced seasons. By then, dozens of theaters had needed to run campaigns to save their theaters. Many had succeeded, some had not. But people were somewhat hopeful. Since then, things have become more dire. The rebound that many hoped for has not come. Theaters that have never had a deficit had one for this past fiscal year. Some of the major non-profits had a deficit bigger than a midsize theater’s budget. Center Theatre Group gained the most headlines when it announced last month that it was indefinitely halting programming at the Mark Taper Forum; however, that hasn’t even been the worst news. We lost entirely one of the most acclaimed children’s theaters in the country, the Bay Area Children's Theatre, and several meaningful regionals, including the Triad Stage in North Carolina and Single Carrot Theatre in Maryland. Oregon Shakespeare Festival raised $2.7 million, over its initial $2.5 million campaign ask, just to announce it needed another $7.3 million to complete its season. The list goes on. There are theaters that have not even had the funds to reopen post-pandemic. There are theaters already planning a substantially reduced 2024-2025 season because they can’t imagine things turning around before then.

How did we get here? It’s easy to blame changing habits that occurred as a result of the pandemic. And, indeed, that certainly is a part of it. The Lookingglass Theatre Company—a midsize Tony recipient located on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago—recently announced that, because of financial concerns, it was reducing its staff and would be producing in “different ways in the coming year” (while thankfully continuing its education initiatives). Its statement, which sought $2.5 million, led with the fact that audiences have not come back. In an interview, Lookingglass Artistic Director Heidi Stillman reiterated that as the theater’s biggest problem.

“People got used to staying in their homes,” Stillman stated, adding that her theater relied on single ticket sales more than subscriptions. “There has also been an exodus of people from cities. Remote work trends are feeding into it. We used to have people who would stop after work at our theater and see a show before they went home. There is also a perception of crime downtown, which I don’t feel, but I do hear that from people. So, in some ways, our location itself, which used to be a real blessing, put us in a tougher situation post-pandemic. Also donations dried up at a time when costs are going up.”

And therein lies the rub. Yes, audience numbers are down. Yes, that is a big part of the story. Yes, it is worth discussing why that is and how to get them back. I’m going to do a bit of that later on. However, even theaters that have ticket sales consistent with where they were in 2019 are still in danger. Attendance was up at Bay Area Children's Theatre and it still had to shutter. Ticket sales often covered less than 50% (and sometimes much less than 50%) of a non-profit theater’s expenses even in the before times. Let’s talk first about the “donations dried up” component.

Donations and Sponsorships are in Freefall

Non-profit theaters rely on a variety of government funding, corporation support, foundation grants, individual giving, trustee giving, and money raised from events.

“The foundations, the unprecedented government support, and the individuals who saw us closed and continued giving money to make sure we could reopen were our absolute lifeline,” said Janet Mullet, Managing Director of the Northlight Theatre in Illinois, and a LORT Board Member. “But they have now said: ‘Okay, we got you through the hump. You're fine. Now I'm moving on.’ We’ve talked a lot among the fellow LORT managers particularly about the dual narrative we're trying to tell. It’s part: ‘We're fine and you should give us money because it's not throwing away your money into a lost bucket.’ And also: ‘We really, really, really need you.’”

As is well known, government support for the arts—at the state, federal, and city/town level—is often subject to political pressures. I’ve been given the financials for several non-profits on background and I can tell you that, as compared to pre-pandemic, I don’t think that’s the problem. Post-pandemic most of the major foundations are still giving to theater—though with some different priorities and levels of disbursements—but there are exceptions to even that.

“God bless The Shubert Organization, whose support has been unflagging, but there are some folks, like MacArthur, that used to do three- and five-year funding, that was one of our foundation pieces, and they pivoted very suddenly, and with almost no notice, out of the arts,” Mullet said. “And it has left giant holes in many of our budgets.”

Nationwide, especially among small and midsize theaters (which don’t have the endowment of larger theaters and therefore are naturally more fragile), the biggest trend I’ve seen is a large drop in smaller foundation giving and corporate and individual donations. Many smaller foundations have entirely shifted funds away from the arts. The local businesses that used to sponsor full seasons are fewer in number. Individual giving is also way down.

“Contributions and corporate sponsorships are definitely down,” said former Broadway star, Lauren Kennedy, who is now Producing Artistic Director at Theatre Raleigh, which seats 200. “We rely mostly on smaller donors, we’re not looking at big massive multi-thousand dollar donors. So, we’re looking at the middle class, upper middle class donor or a small local business that usually was able to give five to ten thousand a year. They are not really doing that right now because they are rightfully worried about their own finances.”

Kennedy said she was currently about $60,000 off her $200,000 fundraising goal. However, that hasn’t impacted theater programming this year. Theatre Raleigh is about to put on The Prom with a band of ten and 22 people in the cast, including Amy Spanger. But contributions are at the forefront of Kennedy’s mind and she is hoping to get her fundraising number up before the year is out.  

The companies I contacted that used to give more to theater than they do now were reluctant to speak on the topic. Those that chatted with me on background cited three reasons. The first is dwindling profits and fears of recession. The second is a reallocation of resources, usually to racial justice or climate justice projects. The third relates to the culture war that theater is now seen as part of—companies still giving to the arts are giving to an art form they see as less controversial.

Additionally, theater leadership changes, which have been coming nonstop in post-pandemic times, have not helped, because it is the former leaders that had the relationships with contributors. Companies and individuals are not as likely to donate when they receive outreach from a stranger. Plus, donors have less confidence in the direction of a theater when it is under new management. 

Rapid Increases in Costs are Hitting Theaters Hard

In addition to ticketing and fundraising shortfalls, theaters have also had to face an exponential rise in expenses. We all know that during the pandemic costs for materials skyrocketed. Many items never came back down. Additionally, workers now usually cost more. In California, small entities that used to pay a stipend to actors and some behind-the-scenes team members are now legally required to pay state minimum wage. Elsewhere employees are simply requesting more money to keep up with the living wage. There is also a labor shortage given how many people left the industry during the pandemic, sometimes leading to what becomes a bidding war between theaters for skilled technicians. Theater executives said shows were sometimes three times more expensive to mount than they would have been in 2019.

“Expenses are rising at a more rapid pace than any of us can keep up with,” said Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company Artistic Director Chris Coleman, whose theater is doing better than most. “And the temporary labor market has dried up—people tired of the gig mentality, so we can’t get those people even at three times what we used to pay them. So it’s a fascinating business model to try to solve for.”

People keep wondering why this is all happening now as opposed to last year. For some theaters, it is that things kept getting worse. For others, a failure to plan plays into it. The influx of government money helped elevate balance sheets for a time. There were those out there who thought we'd be back to a pre-pandemic normal by now. LORT board member and Kansas City Rep. Executive Director Angela Gieras told me that her team was budgeting for a five-year rebuilding period; other teams planned for three years; yet still others thought it would only take one. So some of what we’re seeing is the result of a (perhaps naïve) belief in a rebound that has not yet come. 

The Path Forward

Each theater experiences a slightly different hell in this complex world of horrors. Not surprisingly, theaters are also dealing with these financial shortfalls differently. Some are pausing. Some are reducing the number of shows they are producing. Some are eliminating free community outreach programs, including educational programs. Some are seeking smaller-size shows. Some are going to be leaning more on local talent, which reduces production costs. Some are emphasizing other forms of income. For example, Kennedy said Theatre Raleigh obtained a liquor license and also rents its spaces, both leading to additional non-ticket related earned income.

There are also the “save our stages” campaigns. Campaigns did not work for Bay Area Children’s Theatre (which shuttered even before its campaign end date) or Liberty Theatre Company in Idaho (which failed to raise its $1.7 million campaign amount and saw its building put up for sale in April). However, there is hope. A couple of weeks ago, Westport Country Playhouse launched “Save Your Playhouse,” which seeks to raise $2 million by the end of this month. Over email, Westport Board Chair Athena T. Adamson wrote the campaign has been going well. “We have been thrilled with the engagement that Fairfield County and beyond has given us and we are confident in our financial goals,” she stated. Stillman said she has been reassured by the support that has come in since Lookingglass made its announcement and the company is planning to follow-up with a greater fundraising push. (Lookingglass got some flack on social media for going forward with a planned renovation of its lobby, but the funding for that was part of a $45 Billion Rebuild Illinois Capital Plan bill from 2019 and can only be used for capital improvements.)

And most theaters of course are trying to get audiences back. As I wrote at the start of the year, for some theaters both subscriptions and single tickets are considerably down, for some it is one or the other. Theaters need audience members for the money—and attendance fuels not just ticket sales but often donations and sponsorships—but also because there is no point to theater surviving without audiences.

“Even though ticket sales don't cover everything that we need, it's a really amazing start,” declared Kennedy. “My goal here is to entice the community to really understand the performing arts as something to do on a Friday night as opposed to just going to a restaurant or a game. So my main message is to get out there and support the performing arts by just buying a ticket. You'll be surprised how much you'll fall in love with it. Then we hope you'll want to contribute in other ways too, even if that means just buying a drink at the bar, or a small yearly donation, because you’ll just want to see it thrive.”

Mullet said she is always trying to emphasize “the sheer joy of just going to a play in the dark.” The unique experience that is live theater is unparalleled, but we need people to attend shows to know that. So then the question becomes how to get them there. I polled a very limited sampling of former regional audience members about why they hadn’t returned and it seemed the biggest reason was they hadn’t felt the need given increasing entertainment options. (How to grab the ones that have never come is related but too much for this piece.)

Sadly for those of us that relish original work—and despite Sarah Benson stating in her New York Times exit interview that, “People want to see ambitious work and things they haven’t seen before”—the things that have had the highest attendance regionally are mostly accessible titles. Theaters told me big sellers included Rock of Ages, Little Shop of Horrors and Cabaret. Kansas City Rep. had a hit with Peter Pan and Wendy, Lauren Gunderson’s adaptation of the classic tale grossed enough to put it as one of the top ten productions in the theater’s history, excluding A Christmas Carol mountings. Oh, and A Christmas Carol sold most places. Stage versions of movies or novels other than Peter Pan have also been highlights. That is not to say those are the only things that have sold, but those have been the most consistent sellers. And some theaters I communicated with (if their mission allows it) are planning to produce more well-known works in the hope of building an audience back that will then return for more adventurous works in years to come.

With that out there, I want to note the following. There has been a lot of talk about how theaters pivoting their programming led to some of this. Peter Marks included that idea in his story on this topic in The Washington Post. Social media would indicate that many believe that is a large part of the crisis. But, even if that is true to a degree in some markets, the overall issue is much more complicated. Theaters that are doing the same types of shows they did in 2019 are faltering. Lookingglass had not changed its programming. Yet it is still in this necessary period of reimagining. 

"We are giving ourselves space to think of what our theater can look like in this post-pandemic world," Stillman said. "I can rattle off seven different models of how to do it but I want to think it through more before I'm throwing that out to the world."

Everyone I spoke to believes that when people get back in the habit of coming to the theater, they’ll want to continue to come. And they believe that even though subscriptions were down and deficits were on the rise pre-pandemic. The theater executives I spoke to recognize there are long-term problems that need to be dealt with, that existed before theater went dark, and remain. America does not have a theatergoing culture like the one that exists in some other countries. But that problem isn’t going to be solved entirely in 2023. What executives are focused on now is getting people in, if only for one show, and hoping that the transformative power of theater grabs the audience members and never lets them go.

A Personal Addendum

I’m going to do something I never do and leave you with a personal note. (The weekly column is supposed to be fewer than 700 words other than on very special occasions, so I’m already breaking all the rules.) I've covered some of the bigger issues facing theaters in this story, but there are more, there are nuances, I have said too much and yet not enough. But I can tell you plainly: we need to find a way through.

I am someone who truly believes in the joy of theater and the importance of theater. I know live theater helps people, it matters to people, it improves people’s lives, and it is just a great experience for people to have. Our non-profit theaters are the backbone of our theater infrastructure. For those of you who complain about the prices on Broadway—that’s all we’re going to have unless we step up to support non-profits throughout the country.

You can object to how some of the non-profits spend their money—there are valid discussions to be had there. But there are children’s theaters that have executives paid under an area’s living wage, tickets around the price of a movie ticket, and educational outreach programs. The belief that theaters are wasting tons of money is generally not accurate. Many are doing amazing things on shoestring budgets.

The ramifications of this crisis cannot be overstated. In New York, we of course need to be concerned with our own non-profit theaters, and also the pipeline of shows and the development of young artists that come from out-of-town spaces. But there is something more than that—we all need to worry about the next generation of theatergoers. Last year, I donated to theaters in all fifty states. This year I’m doing two theaters in each state. Now, I don’t personally know of any particular show that came from North Dakota. However, I do know that we need people in North Dakota to see theater. The only way to create a theatergoing culture is for people to see theater. It is for people to experience the magic and want to again. Without our non-profits that is simply an impossibility.

The fact that non-profits are cutting educational outreach programs is heartbreaking. An artistic director, who asked not to be quoted, cried on the phone with me when discussing how they would no longer be able to reach children in schools during the next academic year—that program was previously subsidized and the sponsor pulled out. I was at the Bay Area Children's Theatre in March and I saw children fall in love with theater. Lookingglass is one of my favorite regionals and I’ve been there to see children mesmerized by the company’s famous Lookingglass Alice or Mary Zimmerman’s Steadfast Tin Soldier. Some of those kids need that and all of us involved in the theater need that. Fewer opportunities for people to fall in love with theater is bad for us all.

As I wrote above, America already does not have a theatergoing culture. In any examination of why theater in other countries is doing better than ours, that’s really at the heart of it. But we’re going to have even less of one if our theaters continue to be gutted. This is the time to step up. This is the time to encourage your friends to attend the theater in their town. The time to post on social media about your local productions. The time to give if you possibly can. The time is now.

Industry Trends Weekly runs in the weekly Industry Pro Newsletter. You can read past columns and subscribe here. If you have an idea for the column, you can reach the author at cara@broadwayworld.com.

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