Foreclosures amok, airlines merging, the U.S. dollar losing its punch, it's safe to say the current economic climate is mind-boggling. But when a major New York City theater loses a million dollars in their operating budget, things begin to look grim. For artists.
Today the New York Theater Workshop, a major Off Broadway theater which sent Rent to Broadway, announced it was laying off its entire production staff. This comes a month or so after rumors were floating from the rehearsal rooms of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to the writers' office of Law and Order the theater hadn't been paying some of its staff for weeks.
The New York Theater Workshop prides itself on being a very edgy, political theater. Besides from the AIDS-era musical Rent of the late 90s, it also stages religious, sexual and political theater without ever holding punches. They world-premiered Up Against the Wind, the controversial Tupac play that ignited Anthony Mackie's career. Last year, they were in the hot seat after deciding not to produce My Name is Rachel Corrie, the play about the true story of an American girl who was run over by an Israeli tank while protecting a Palestinian home. Their refusal to produce the play led many in worldwide theater to charge them with censorship, and appeasing the Jewish political community. The Workshop insisted they needed more time to bring context to the play. They didn't want to be careless theatermakers producing theater for the sake of controversy without responsibility. That excuse brought even more daggers.
I'm not suggesting this latter controversy has put them into financial trouble. But many believe they lost monetary support after pulling out of My Name is Rachel Corrie in some sort of revenge tactic. That action was labeled cowardice from London to Hong Kong. But the theater's interim managing director says with Rent closing on September 7, their Board decided to cut their operating budget by 1 million dollars. The theater has been profitting from Rent royalties for the last ten years and without royalties, well... I assume it's better safe than bankrupt.
It's no secret that Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional theaters have been trying to find balance in the last few years. Many have sorted to co-productions, the guarantee of musicals, downsizing the number of plays per year, and/or opening their doors to less, let me just say, artistically-driven works. But even with that said, it's a daunting day when this country's premiere political theater has to do layoffs and gets behind on paying their staff. The fear is... What next. The other fear? Is this recent struggle any indication of how other well-known institutions are struggling? Will American theater begin to collapse like our trusted airlines?
