Lecture 15 - Theatre Organization

Today, I'm going to talk about theater organization, and I'm going to begin by giving you some terms, names, and other things that you will encounter throughout the semester, especially in the interviews. It is necessary for you to understand these organizations and terms in order to comprehend the references in the interviews. One of the terms you will hear is "professional non-professional equity production non-equity regional resident theatres Broadway theatres community theater." I will try to explain these terms and provide some background to help you understand what is going on. Toward the end of the hour, we will discuss how this organizational change in the U.S. theater during the mid-20th century has profoundly affected the way we see theater today, particularly the kind of theater we see now. Let's start with the legal status of theaters. A theater is usually a legal entity that sells a product or service and therefore, it needs a license to do so. There are two kinds of legal status that can be applied for. The first is a for-profit organization, which refers to any business organized for the individual or investors to make money and achieve a return on their venture. In the theater industry, we commonly refer to this as the commercial theater. The commercial theater involves a group of people who invest their money into a production with the hope that it will be successful. The box office return from selling tickets is expected to eventually recoup their investment and hopefully generate additional profit. The same concept applies to commercial films and television, where investors finance productions in the hopes of making returns from distribution and advertising revenues. Commercial television is slightly different in that viewers do not directly pay to watch it. Instead, the television networks generate revenue through advertisements shown during breaks. These ads are purchased and sold by the television networks, with the intention of enticing viewers to buy the advertised products or services. Therefore, while you may have access to free television, you are still being influenced to spend or part with your money in some way. In summary, commercial theater, film, and television fall under the category of for-profit status, where the main goal is financial gain for the individuals or investors involved. Investors, the individuals, are going to make money on this particular product. Now, the other legal status that one can have is a not-for-profit status. There are certain kinds of organizations that exist for charitable, artistic, and public good purposes, which are then allowed to be organized under the status of not-for-profit. Now, don't get confused just because it is called not-for-profit. Please don't think that this mean this organization can't make money. In fact, most of these organizations do hope to make money. However, what happens is that the profit does not return to individuals or investors, as we indicated would be true in the commercial world. Instead, the profit stays within the organization. Therefore, we have theatre companies throughout the country that exist under a not-for-profit status. Yes, they may have many people working for them, and all of these people work for salaries. These people are paid using the money that comes into the not-for-profit organization, or not-for-profit theatre company. At the end of the year, it is certainly hoped that there will be some kind of profit left over which can be returned to the organization. This profit will then provide a cushion for the coming year. This allows the organization to make some experiments and possibly not have every single box office pay off the entire production at that time. They have a cushion that they have accumulated. This profit becomes a cushion in case they arrive at a time where they cannot pay completely for the production. So, we have a legal status, for-profit, and not-for-profit. Next, let's look at the kind of mode of organization, which stems from the status of the individuals involved. Are they paid or not paid? In this case, we can divide them into two categories: professional and non-professional. This is not something new or difficult to understand. Most of you are aware of the sports world and the distinction between professional and non-professional sports. Although frequently called amateur, the word "amateur" has taken on a negative connotation, so in the theater world, we usually refer to professional and non-professional instead. Non-professional theater can be further divided into educational theater and vocational/community theater. For example, in Springfield, we have an organization called Springfield Little Theatre, which is a community theater. While certain staff members are paid, such as the director and manager, most of the people involved in the production are volunteers. On stage, these people are not paid for their services. They have volunteers. Now, this does not mean that they are unqualified. This does not mean that they are untrained. In fact, many of these individuals, especially the actors, may have received very good training while they were in college or university. But it just means that at some point, they decided they were not pursuing a professional status and found some other means to make a living. However, in order to tap into their creativity and their artistic nature, they volunteer to be involved in the production of theatre. They may be actors or technicians backstage, painting, working as stagehands, or looking for properties to decorate the set. These properties are essential to the production, such as a gun needed for a scene. There are people who love searching for these props and making sure they belong on stage. Most of these individuals are volunteers, though some may be paid. Now, let's backtrack and look at the professional aspect. One term you will hear throughout the semester is whether a production is an equity or non-equity production. In this case, equity refers to the status of the actors. If the actors are being paid, it is considered a professional production. And if most of the actors are members of Actors Equity Association, it is an equity production. Organizations that hire equity actors must meet a certain salary scale set by Actors Equity. Depending on factors such as geographic location and theater size, there is a minimum pay scale that must be adhered to. While equity actors may be paid more, they are guaranteed at least the minimum for that organization. Once an actor becomes a member of Actors Equity, they must always work under an equity contract, with certain conditions. A non-equity organization can hire an equity actor, but they must work with Actors Equity to set up a special contract that ensures the actor is paid at least the minimum. It is a guarantee that the actor will receive the minimum regardless of the organization's scale. There now, the same similar situation exists in film. If you are working in film and you're working in Hollywood, then you must join SAG (Screen Actors Guild). If you are working in commercial television, then you must belong to AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). All of those unions then guarantee that, by being members in the organization and by paying the dues to continue in the organization, when you sign your contract, there is a certain minimum level that is going to be reached and that you are guaranteed that you'll do this. Now, there are indeed throughout the country there are theaters that exist that are professional theaters but that are non-equity organizations, and that is the actors may be paid for their services but they are not necessarily being paid and usually are not meeting what is the equity minimum. These days, there are many touring companies that are organized in New York, leave out of New York, but hire only non-equity actors. And those touring companies then travel throughout the country, appearing in what are usually called roadhouses, appearing in various theaters throughout the country, presenting their performances, and you are paying for what you are seeing at the box office. But it means that the company is not an equity tour. Now, it doesn't mean that a non-equity production is going to be bad. In fact, there can be a very good non-equity production. It does mean, however, in most cases that the actors are usually not going to be experienced, or they're not going to have had as much experience as an equity actor will have had. An equity production will show. So, therefore, what you should always do anytime if you are going to see a touring production, ask, "Is this an equity production, or is this a non-equity production?" It's still not going to tell you how good the quality is. I have seen many equity productions which have not necessarily been of the highest quality. I have seen productions in New York which, in some cases, I wondered why was this particular production there. The quality was not particularly high. But there is usually, and this is just one can say a rule of thumb, there is usually a kind of assurance that there is going to be a higher quality product involved if it is an equity production than if it is a non-equity production. But that's just something where it's a gamble, and consequently, you just have to sort of take the gamble and go see. Alright, now the other way in which we can look at theater organization is by geography. And this becomes a kind of self-centered one, that is in terms of so far as New York is concerned, there are two kinds of theater. That is, there is the theater which is in New York, and there is everything else which is outside New York. And anything outside of New York is usually called regional theater. It is regional to the New Yorker because it is outside New York and so therefore it gets that name. Now, within the geographic location within New York, geography we are talking about, there are references and you were here. It's frequently talked throughout the semester about Broadway productions. A Broadway production refers to a production that started and appeared in New York, appeared in what is called a Broadway theater. And this really becomes something quite narrow, and that is quite narrow and quite small in terms of number. And that is literally what we mean in terms of Broadway when we're referring to New York. And specifically, of course, then to Manhattan, is we are referring to a very narrow strip that exists somewhere between 40th Street on the south to 52nd Street on the north. So it's about 12 blocks in between, between Sixth Avenue on the east to Eighth Avenue on the west. At this point, you say, "Well, where does the word Broadway come from?" And the word Broadway comes from that running sort of, straddling, running right down through the middle of that is then the street called Broadway. Although most of the theaters that appear are not actually on Broadway themselves, they are all within those blocks that I have just indicated here, so therefore they are associated specifically with Broadway. Broadway theatre is always commercial. Broadway theatre is always for-profit. It is always professional. It is always equity professional plus, in the case of Broadway theaters, all of the other unions. Every single person who works in a Broadway theater belongs to a union of some kind. From the people who uh sure you in and give you a program and may show you to your seat, all the way to all of the crew and all of the actors, all of these people belong to unions. All of these people have scale and have salary scales. And so therefore, anytime you go to the theater, then you buy a ticket, a part of that ticket will go to help pay for some particular person who belongs to a particular Union. I'm going to go into this a little bit more in another program. But once you begin to realize the totality of the number of people who are being paid, who work in Broadway houses, then at that point, you can begin to realize perhaps why if you do go to New York and if you do go see a Broadway show, you are going to pay 60, 75, 80, or hundred dollars for a ticket because that particular ticket is supporting many, many individuals concerned with the production. Now, there are many other theaters that exist in Manhattan that do not fall into this special jurisdiction that I just talked about. That is called Broadway, and they are called off-Broadway. And there is also a thing called off, off Broadway. But let's just label and cut everything else that is an on-Broadway theatre that is going to be off-Broadway. Now, the off-Broadway theatre, again, is usually professional. It is frequently, although not always, but usually frequently, equity productions in some way. But they are on a different pay scale from the Broadway theatre. And because of this, then this is one of the places where an off-Broadway theatre, many and much of the experimental theatre, can go on because it can't afford to take more of a chance than you can with the very, very expensive Broadway productions. Now, the other thing we have to understand here is that during the first half of the 20th century, New York theatre, and specifically, usually Broadway theatre, and huge, so therefore, commercial theatre dominated, dominated the theatre in the United States. Most of the productions that were produced then throughout the country began in a Broadway house. And if it was successful, then it would be given other productions. Also, professional theatre in the first half of the 20th century usually meant that professional theatres came through touring companies that would be cast in New York, originated in New York, and then would move out and play in theatres that existed in cities across the whole United States. Even in Chicago, which at that point in the middle of the century was the second-largest city in the United States, even in Chicago, while there were a few local theatres, the most notable was the Goodman Theatre that had been founded about nineteen twenty-five or so. But to most people in Chicago, if they were going to the theatre, then that meant going into the loop and, at that point, then going to one of the touring houses such as the Schubert, the Blackstone, the Erlanger, the Studebaker, those various theatres that were there within the loop. And they would see a touring production which had originated in New York and had with it and would then come into Chicago and play, and maybe even play for quite some time. Maybe it would be there for two weeks or four weeks or six weeks or eight weeks or who knows, knowing the popularity of the production. They would gauge how long they thought that particular production would last in Chicago. But notice that what we're still talking about is Productions that originated in New York and then toured outside of New York and played across the country. Now, during the same time that we're talking about, there is, yes, a great deal of non-professional or amateur theatre organizations that are organized and presenting theatre in their local community. Just for example, we mentioned earlier the Springfield Little Theatre. The Springfield Little Theatre was organized in 1934 and has continuously, with a few exceptions, presented productions from 1934 to the present day. Initially, it had no home at all and would rent or borrow a theater from a particular group or a local university or college to present its productions. It had nothing that it could call home until 1970 when it purchased the Landers theater in downtown Springfield. At that point, it then became the Springfield Little Theatre at the Landers theater. The Landers is simply the name of the theater building in which Springfield Little Theatre produces and presents its productions. However, it is still a non-professional, amateur organization. If professional theatre wanted to be seen, it would come through touring productions. Now, however, in the middle of the century, we begin to find one of the great major changes that happened to American theatre in the 20th century. One of the most important changes happened to American theatre in the 20th century, and in many ways, this started with the Ford Foundation. The Ford Foundation decided to make a major change in the way it was granting money. It decided to include artistic organizations to which it would grant money. At that point, they would grant money to artistic organizations. McNeil Lowry, who was with the Ford Foundation at that time, later wrote about this particular point in 1957: "When I had been at the Ford Foundation for three and a half years, the trustees first authorized a program in support of the arts. As director and later vice president of the new program, I and a small staff began working with professionals in each area of the arts to develop objectives for organized philanthropy. The first undertaking in American history on such a national scale." The Ford Foundation aimed to offer American artists a clean slate to encourage them to build companies devoted to process, beyond a single production and beyond commercial sanction. This motive intrinsically contained the seeds of a plan which came into sharper focus through the staff work of the program in humanities and the arts. In 1957, the Ford Foundation published its statement that the theater in America was an artistic resource, like music and the visual arts, and should not be regarded as commerce and entertainment. It made a crack in the wall which theatre artists still can exploit. What McNeil Lowry is pointing out here is that, as we said, the New York theatre and the commercial theatre dominated the professional world. Now, what happens is the Ford Foundation recognizes that the theater can indeed have artistic purposes and artistic existence, and that it does not have to be solely commercial. This brought a change of status and recognition to theatre which had not existed prior to this time. Encouraged by the Ford Foundation, a group of individuals came together in 1959 to... Hold a conference, and this particular conference was indeed historic because it is here that the foundations for the way the theater was to be organized in the United States were to take place. In this particular conference, they sort of came up with the following findings: 1. There is a greater ability and willingness to experiment outside of New York commercial conditions. 2. There is also a limit to how far you can experiment behind a proscenium arch (this is a reference to the particular kind of theater and something we will talk about and develop at another time). 3. The important goal is the opportunity to go wrong, to try out something which is practically impossible in New York. When you are in a commercial situation, where investors have put money into the production, the hope and the intent of those investors is to get their money back and make a profit. Therefore, the attempt to try out something was not necessarily frequently present here. Another finding: All over America, it seems that people are feeling some kind of stir, some need for theater. How can we put together theater artists responsible to each other as artists, supported by the Ford Foundation, without commercial penalties? How then does this differ from the off-Broadway theater that exists in New York? It is going to be different in its very roots. Even in the most idealistic aims of off-Broadway, it always still comes back to commercial exploitation. If there is some way to help professional actors work together through even two productions, we will have broken through. This is exactly what the commercial producer will not subsidize. So, it is from that conference in 1959 that a number of individuals began to come together and say, "We wish to create a theater in America outside of New York. We wish to create a theater which belongs to the community in which we exist. We are not a touring company that's just going to come in and put on a show for a few days or weeks. We are instead going to be a theater that belongs to the community." Now, there were already a few examples around the country, not many, but there had already begun to be a few examples. As early as 1915, the Cleveland Playhouse began as a community theater but soon changed its status and became a professional theater, one of the first outside of New York City. Its intent was to create professional theater for the Cleveland community, a theater that belonged to the community and was a part of Cleveland, with the artists who were members of the organization being citizens of Cleveland themselves. We also have the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, established in 1925, which existed for much of the same purposes. The Goodman Theatre was associated with the famous Art Institute of Chicago when it first started. In 1947, both in Houston and in Dallas, two strong-willed women created theaters in which they could work as artists and bring together other professional theater artists. Nina Vance created the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas, and Margo Jones created Theater-in-the-Round in Dallas. The Theater-in-the-Round no longer exists in Dallas as Margo Jones passed away in the 1950s, causing the theater to cease operations. Existence - The Alley Theatre, however, still continues today. It is no longer literally named "The Alley Theatre," because when the events started at the theater, it found a building in downtown Houston which was in the business district. But, it was quite literally behind the commercial district, and so you passed commercial businesses and went down an alley. And when you got to the back of the alley, then that was the entrance to the theater. And so, therefore, it acquired its name "The Alley Theatre." Today, however, it does indeed have its own home with two theaters which belong in a wonderful theater building, but it's still called "The Alley Theatre." Its founder was Nine Advance in 1950. We find three young graduate students, one of whom, again, one of these very strong-willed women by the name of Zelda Fish Handler. Zelda Fish Handler and her husband and a friend had recently finished graduate work in theater at Catholic U in Washington. And they did not want to leave Washington, they liked living there. But they asked, "Why isn't there a theater in this, which is the nation's capital?" There is almost no theater, some amateur theater, yes, but no professional theater. There was the Roadhouse and the National Theatre. And when one in Washington thought of theater, one thought of going to the National Theatre to see some touring company which comes in from New York and you see the productions. And that was professional theater. And so, these three young graduate students said, "Wait a minute, we want to create professional theater here in Washington. We also do not want to create commercial theater. We want to create the theater, the vision that we have, and that we can collect an audience to come see." And so, in this particular case, they were looking for a place for them to perform. Quite found in a not-so-reputable district, but in part of the industrial area in Washington, they found a beer brewery which had been closed and was no longer in use. And so, they scraped the money together to rent the building. And as they went through the building, they found there was one enormous space within the building, which was the place where the vats, the room where the vats had been at one point for the beer brewery. And these were now gone. So here was this enormous open space. And so now, being inspired by the work of Margo Jones in Dallas, and that is her work in the round, and we'll talk another time about what we mean by theater-in-the-round, they then created a theater in the vat room of the brewery. And because it was in the round, it was in a kind of arena situation. And maybe the easiest way to understand it is to think of it like a basketball arena. And that is, the audience is sitting on all four sides around the arena, and then the acting space is in the middle. Obviously, it's usually much smaller than a basketball arena. But if you understand that particular physical situation, then you understand what we're talking about when we say theater-in-the-round. And so it is here then they created and they named their organization "The Arena Theatre." They struggled those first few years, but they managed to keep it afloat, and they finally did succeed. And once they started and realized this is 1950 when they start, and once the Ford Foundation opens that gate for them, then it is indeed at the Arena Theatre that the Ford Foundation turns and looks at as one of the models that they could possibly have for how theater might develop across the country. And thus then also the Arena Theatre began to have a new source of funds, and that is they could seek money from the Ford Foundation and other foundations. And eventually, they were able, the members of that theatre were able, to build their own new theatre, and still call it the Arena Theatre. Still in Washington, DC, but a building in which they have three theatres now. One of which is still their traditional arena theatre, then a smaller proscenium arch theatre, and then a theatre which is a kind of cabaret theatre which they call the "Vat Room." Now, there is one other important change that we need to go into at this point, and that is a broadening and a change in the federal tax laws. Up until this time, theater organizations and many others were not considered part of charitable organizations or organizations that could receive donations and be included as a taxable deduction on your individual federal income tax. But with the statement that the Ford Foundation made in 1957, recognizing theater as an art form, the tax laws were changed. These changes broadened the donation laws, allowing individuals to give money to churches, museums, and other charitable organizations. This tax law was expanded to include most arts organizations, as long as they were organized under the not-for-profit status. So, now we have these two things coming together: the change in tax laws that allow individuals, businesses, foundations, and others to give money to theater organizations, and the recognition by the Ford Foundation that theater is an art form. This donation can then be deducted from your federal income tax. Once that happens, the floodgates are opened, with the encouragement from the Ford Foundation. Starting in the 1960s, there is a movement across the United States. Almost every metropolitan city, regardless of size, has a theater company that is organized. They build arts or theater centers. One of the first and most notable examples is in 1963. This becomes a model for many other cities. At a conference in 1959, a group of men, all men at that time, came together and expressed their desire to create a theater company outside of the New York commercial theater scene. They wanted to remove the organization from the hothouse environment of New York. After studying several major cities, they finally selected Minneapolis. They felt that the artistic and cultural climate in Minneapolis, with its major art museums, a symphony orchestra, and various other cultural organizations, was suitable for their endeavor. In 1963, they opened what was initially called the Minnesota Theater Company. They brought in the British director Tyrone Guthrie to be the artistic head of that company. Guthrie had already started a previous organization, the Shakespeare Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario, which served as a model for the Minnesota Theater Company. Guthrie had gone to Stratford in 1953 to help them start their festival. Now, the Minnesota Theater Company asked him to come and do the same thing for them - help them establish their artistic vision, be the artistic director and executive artistic manager, and also create a physical building similar to the one he helped create in Stratford. Ontario and so Guthrie and his artistic associate Tanya Messiah (which he Tanya and Guthrie) came and they thus created the theatre building. It was not to be a proscenium arch theatre because in fact, they felt this is to be a theater of the word, this is to be a theater of Shakespeare in which we can present Shakespeare. The theater of Shakespeare was not a proscenium arch theatre and so, therefore, we do not want to create that kind of theater building. We want to create a theater that thrusts out into the audience, that the audience can surround on three sides. So, they built then the theater building in which then in 1963 the Minnesota Theatre Company opened and gave its first productions. Eventually, after Guthrie left the company and in honor of the work that Tyrone Guthrie had done there in being their founder artistic director and getting them on their feet artistically of the Minnesota Theatre Company, the name was changed and we know it today as the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. And it still continues down to the present day, one of the major regional resident theaters in the United States. We also find then even here, I say even here, but we certainly be aware that even within Missouri, we were certainly not immune to this fever that was sweeping the country. In 1964, Patricia McElrath, who was head of the department at what is now the University of Missouri-Kansas City (Patricia McElrath), had a dream of opening a professional theater in Kansas City. And in the summer of nineteen sixty-four, taking over the theater building that was used by the theater by the department in the regular year, she gave for the first summer two productions that played that particular summer. And four years later, in 1968, the company moved and it was a professional company. But in 1968 then joined and agreed to become a member of Actors Equity. And since that time, it has been a professional equity company. In 1965, on the campus of Webster University, the Repertory Theater of St. Louis was founded. They made as their home the theater that is called the Loretta Hilton theater. This is the theater in which the Sisters of Loreto, who are in residence at Webster, had convinced Conrad Hilton, the owner of the Hilton Hotel, to make a major contribution to them to build a theater building. And so, they built it, and it's called the Loretto Hilton. And then the organization was founded, the Repertory Theater of St. Louis. And they still can, it still continues down to the present day as a professional equity theater in St. Louis. What is very interesting is then by nineteen seventy Actors Equity was to find that for the first time in the 20th century more actors were being paid to act, you know what they were working at that in which they were trained and artistically had the ability to do. They were being paid to work outside New York City than those who work in New York City. And that has been true then ever since. By the time we arrived and by the time we arrived in the 1990s, there are in what is called Lord lort the League of Resident theaters there are somewhere in the neighborhood of and it varies but usually two hundred fifty to two hundred and fifty or so Lord theaters. All Lord theaters are professional. All Lord theaters are equity professional theaters. And therefore, as a member of Lord, we find that the American theater has been turned upside down. And that is that used to start in New York, and that is that new plays were always given on Broadway and then toured and then were produced by various theaters (non by the nonprofessional theaters) across the country. New theater now begins in the regional theater in the resident theaters. New York Broadway is far too expensive, it cannot afford to experiment. So what happens then is the American now begins in the regional theaters. And if it is successful there, then it moves to New York. So, what happens Broadway these days is mostly a showcase.