Theaters are still trying to regain their pre-pandemic footing
Theaters are still trying to regain their pre-pandemic footing
Performing arts shows and other live, in-person events were some of the first to close down at the beginning of the pandemic. Now, after reopening their doors at the start of the year, many theaters are still struggling to bring attendance figures up to pre-COVID levels. On Broadway, some iconic shows like “Phantom of the Opera” are disappearing because they aren’t making enough money.
The story is largely the same for smaller regional theaters like the Horizon Theatre Co. in Atlanta. A not-for-profit company, Horizon has struggled with a multitude of issues since reopening in January, including staff shortages, lower attendance and higher costs for building materials due to inflation, said Lisa Adler, co-artistic and producing director at Horizon.
“We were closed for almost two years. … We were really, really fortunate to have [Paycheck Protection Program] funds and Shuttered Venue Operators grants that kept a lot of us, hundreds of theaters, alive,” Adler said in an interview with “Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio. “But now that money is gone, and audiences are not fully back.”
The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
David Brancaccio: I mean, I’ve been on Broadway, audiences are coming back. But what are you seeing — close to the levels of what you saw before the COVID mess?
Lisa Adler: Not quite yet. I think audiences in the regions are a little different across the country. My peers are seeing audiences slowly coming back. And we, you know, we were closed for almost two years. As theater companies and doing virtual programming, we were really, really fortunate to have PPP funds and Shuttered Venue Operators grants that kept a lot of us, hundreds of theaters, alive. But now that money is gone, and audiences are not fully back. I think it varies across the country, but you know, anywhere from 50 to 75% of pre-pandemic, and there are experts that are predicting it’s a two- to five-year recovery for our regional theaters. So we’re dealing with that and donors as well. You know, Broadway is commercial, but most of the theaters in the regions are not-for-profit organizations and rely for anywhere between 40 and 80% of their funding on donations. So we are trying to woo our donors back, primarily individuals who got out of the habit of being with us for a couple of years. So it’s an interesting time.
Brancaccio: Yeah, “interesting” is one way of describing it. Now, we talked to people in so many industries about trouble recruiting people in what has been a very hot labor market. What about you? You too?
Adler: Yeah, very difficult. You know, like so many people in the country, this was a reset time for the whole theater industry. So the theaters are all trying to figure out how we more fairly compensate people when donations and ticket sales have not caught up to that reality. And we have a lot of education of donors to do about kind of the seismic shift in the theater world. It was always considered if you worked in theater, you were making a sacrifice to do so. But that’s not how it’s going to be in the future. So we’re all trying to figure that out.
Brancaccio: Now, you’re in Atlanta. I’m seeing something about competition from an industry that’s adjacent to yours, I think streaming and TV. What, what’s going on with that — making it harder for you to recruit people?
Adler: Well, you know, film and television is really big in Atlanta. There’s a huge film and television industry here because of the big tax credits the state offers. Yeah, the actors, technicians are going instead to TV and film and commercials. And, you know, agents and actors, they don’t play well with theater. They don’t like when actors take off to do theater instead of doing their film and television gigs. So it’s a challenge. We’re having to understudy every single role and make sure people are ready to go on in a way that we haven’t before, not only for COVID primarily, but secondarily for the film and television industry.
Brancaccio: All right. Inflation. I’m thinking, what, air-conditioning bills this summer? You feeling it?
Adler: Inflation from building supplies, a lot of building supplies increases, energy costs, gas and wages are all affecting us. And supply chain — we’re not able to get some things. We’ve had to make a lot of changes in what we’re doing scenically because we just couldn’t get the materials that we needed.
Brancaccio: And if anyone can get to Atlanta, what do you have on the main stage? I think you have a version of “Designing Women” going?
Adler: Yes, we have “Designing Women 2020: The Big Split,” which is a new version of “Designing Women” that’s set in 2020 and looks at, what else? COVID, the pandemic, and the “big split” is the political divide in our nation.
Brancaccio: And you have this festival of new plays from the South. Are you thinking of doing that again next year?
Adler: Yeah, that is kind of an ongoing project. Right now we have something called the New Georgia Woman Project: “Black Women Speak,” which is commissioning nine Black women writers to write plays about Black women in the South. We actually did that over the pandemic and are looking to produce those plays over the next few years. So that’s what our New South festival has been doing. That’s become more of a program rather than a specific festival time period.
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