The economic crisis has already began making it’s unwelcome and frightening presence felt with arts organizations. There’s been some talk in the Chicago theater blogs lately about grant money getting scarcer by the day and several theater companies sending out year-end donation ask letters that give off a scent of panic and, it kills me to even write this, desperation (I have been deluged with many donation request letters over the past couple of weeks, even from theater companies I don’t regularly go to, but I haven’t received that one letter from that one theater group that Kris’s blog commenters mention. I think I know who it is, and I’m floored that they even contemplated, much less sent, a letter like that to their subscribers and ticketbuyers). My two cents on all of this is that this is the time for winnowing, where theater companies that consistently provide compelling, truthful, and impactful theatrical experiences to its audiences will survive these calamitous times, and be the stronger, more robust, and more mature for it. As I’ve already mentioned in a previous blog post, I’ve seen a lot of self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing, indifferent-to-the-audience theater in this town, and no arts group can afford to act in that way anymore right now; it’s change or die.
Dec 01
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