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Numerous sectors continue to feel the wrath of the pandemic three years after it reached the United States. Commercial real estate is struggling from the demand of remote work, and many restaurants—which had thin margins even in the best of times—walk a knife’s edge.
Perhaps no industry has been bruised like live theater. As the IBJ and other news outlets have reported, the post-pandemic environment for theaters is grim. One consultant told The Washington Post in July that half of the live theaters in the country could be gone by this time next year.
That’s a tough forecast to swallow. Thriving performing arts keep communities alive—both culturally and economically. The overall arts economy in 2021 represented 4.4% of gross domestic product—just more than $1 trillion—according to the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. But “dinner and a show” has been traded in for streaming television and other entertainment. (Julie Goodman, CEO of the Indy Arts Council, appropriately coined the phrase “the lure of the couch.”)
Now, we must get our audiences back.
There’s a bright side: The problem is fixable. The theater industry must be creative (and, fortunately, that’s what we do best). A great example comes from right here in central Indiana.
The Phoenix Theatre opened its doors nearly 40 years ago—on Nov. 4, 1983—and it has developed a rich heritage that has touched tens of thousands of lives. The Phoenix has given a voice to the voiceless and has both outraged and delighted audiences by taking on tough issues. But 40 years later, we’re changing—for our own good and for the good of our arts community.
Five years after moving from the “church” near Massachusetts Avenue to our state-of-the-art cultural center on Illinois Street, we’re offering live theater in a new way. Seven theater and dance companies—including the Phoenix—now call the cultural center their home. We don’t look at them as tenants: They are partners that will drive visibility as well as opportunity for more actors, writers and directors. When more theaters are successful, they engage and enrich us. We want to make Indianapolis a destination for top talent and productions, and this model will help us achieve these goals.
We’re not alone in tweaking our business model. Long Wharf Theatre, an iconic company in New Haven, Connecticut, has left behind its $4 million annual budget and home of 55 years to produce shows across its community (including in private homes). In Philadelphia, InterAct Theatre Company has transformed the former ballroom of The Drake Hotel into a dual theater facility in the heart of the city’s cultural district, where it’s joined by several other theater companies. And like our cultural center in Indianapolis, The Vortex in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and B-Street Theatre in Sacramento, California, are providing homes to other theaters to draw in bigger crowds for everyone.
But rethinking our bricks and mortar is only part of the solution. Theaters must draw people back by presenting dynamic, highly entertaining performances, or they won’t last in a hyper-competitive marketplace. When the Phoenix debuted in 1983, the Colts were in Baltimore, downtown Indianapolis was barren, and Netflix was unheard of. But competition makes everyone better. That means we must find the best scripts, top-flight actors and more patrons who want to see entertainment they can’t find anywhere else.
If we succeed, Indianapolis and other communities will succeed with us.•
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Powell is the interim CEO of the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre.
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