But Only Because People Are Asking

Normally, I try to keep out of other people’s opinions—especially if they happen to come from a major media outlet. (Why give them any more attention than they’re already getting?) However, since enough people have asked me what I think about this past Sunday's article by the theatre guy from the daily, I should probably mention something about it.

The gist of the article is this: the author feels that, while theatre in Milwaukee has been particularly good lately, it needs to take more chances. Local theatre companies are playing it safe far too much and Milwaukee audiences are suffering. Or something like that.

The problem with the article is that its author is only talking about the more established, relatively well-funded theatre companies. One does not attend a show by one of these companies if one is expecting to be challenged for the same reason one does not attend a Hollywood film at a multiplex for clever, thoughtful cinema. Big money generally doesn’t take chances with new, challenging stuff. Look at how many new Broadway musicals are based on old Hollywood films. Big money generally doesn’t take chances with new, challenging stuff. Compare the budgets of The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (one of the largest arts groups state) and Present Music (not one of the largest arts groups in the state) and compare how many world premier compositions each one performs each season. Try selling work by a new composer to an audience that would rather listen to Beethoven again. (I know what this is like firsthand: I used to work in subscription sales for the MSO.)

Big money theatre is big money theatre because it does stuff with a proven track record that will guarantee an appreciation by a broad enough audience to maintain funding. Take chances with something new and you run the risk of alienating some of your established audience. About once per season, the Artistic Director of the Sunset Playhouse tries something a little out of the ordinary for a relatively sleepy suburban, Elm Grove audience and about once per season, the Artistic Director of the Sunset Playhouse gets a flood of calls from irate customers asking why he would put something so offensive onstage. Making decisions for major stage in town, you're put in a strange place. You find yourself finessing that tenuous balance between what artists want to do, (giving the audience what you think they want) audience expectations (giving the audience what they think they want) and the artists’ perceptions of audience expectations (giving the audience what you think that they think they want.)

Those who want to be challenged by new, untested theatre don’t go where the money is—they go to the fringe. In a market like Milwaukee, that means going to DIY shows at out of the way locations—shows by theatre groups with names like Pink Banana, Alamo Basement and Insurgent Theatre. Generally speaking, that means going to shows that the theatre guy from the daily doesn’t review. The problem here is not that theatre in Milwaukee isn’t taking chances—it’s that the theatre that is taking chances isn’t being seen by the guy who wrote the article everyone seems to be going on about.

Russ Bickerstaff has been writing for VITAL since 2003, when the world probably made slightly more sense. He co-manages an apartment complex with his beautiful wife Carrie, a poet for an insurance company with whom he hopes to eventually move to the suburbs to raise some little insurance poet-critics. There must be decent paying work around here somewhere...