Sunday, February 13, 2011

Oh My--Catfight in the Theater Community

Here's a wonderful article about a little dust-up I heard about on the interwebs a few weeks ago, which has now been picked up by the MSM.  It seems the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts Rocco Landesman (was there ever someone named Rocco who wasn't a worthwhile figure?) had the temerity to suggest that the principles of supply and demand apply equally to the world of theater performance as it does in other markets.  Responding to a question about declining attendance figures, Landesman offered ""There are too many theaters," he said.  "Look," he explained. "You can either increase demand or decrease supply. Demand is not going to increase. So it is time to think about decreasing supply."Adding insult to injury as the theater community took to its collective sedan chairs, was this little gem, "There are 5.7 million arts workers in this country and 2 million artists. Do we need three administrators for every artist?"  The theater world is in an uproar.

Wonderful stuff.  Putting aside for a moment the inanity of the government sponsoring theater anyway, that the man responsible for doling out federal largess  thinks this way is definitely a step in the right direction.

4 comments:

gerpalip said...

Oh sure, I'm going to click on the link to read about the catfight in the community theatre only to be CW-rolled to another story about you.

Lancelot Dancealot said...

It's obvious these dee-LICious dancers in the pic have already been hit by the budget tightening. No, Silly! I'm not referring to their shirtless sinewy...ssssiiiiggghhhh...bodies, I'm utterly aghast that they've been stripped of their seasonal porkpies. What next, their rainbow bumper stickers?

Bill said...

A timely follow up to the article about stage hands in NYC making over $200K/year.

Bill said...

A timely article. Did you see the article last month about basic stage hands in NYC making over $150K/year?

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