Building the Base

Abstract

In the February 2005 issue of American Theatre, Ben Cameron considered impending season selection at theatres across the country and noted, “There are no magic bullets. God knows, I wish there were—especially in these times. … Even in the face of critical raves, standing ovations and a true sense of artistic pride, many have still fallen short of attendance goals.”² Cameron explored a range of possible solutions to dwindling audiences: a season with no classics, or perhaps only classics; maybe opera, or A Christmas Carol, or the ever-popular Waiting for Godot. Indeed, the need to build audiences haunts most contemporary practitioners as we struggle to reestablish the place of theatre in the midst of its media sisters. It is a global issue, as noted in a column by Bhaskar Ghose in Frontline, a national Indian magazine: “Theatre needs to recapture its participative quality and density of human experience in order to woo the audience back from television and films. …”³ How then, do we build the base?