Earlier this month, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater invited more than 60 artistic and executive leaders to discuss the problems currently facing nonprofit theater, including Broadway nonprofits, which are members of the League of Resident Theatres. Throughout a three-day conference called “From Crisis to Catalyst: Transforming the Regional Theatre Landscape,” the Milwaukee Rep held panels, presentations and discussions on the topic, releasing its results in a report authored by dramaturg Mike Fischer.
In a keynote address, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar described the problem this way: from 2023 to 2024, attendance at nonprofit theaters fell 20%, while income fell by almost 40%. During the conference’s final panel, Mike Schleifer, the managing director of Lincoln Center Theater, also addressed concerns over rising costs and the impossibility of increasing productivity in an industry like theater. The conference aimed to discuss ways to confront the changing landscape of, and build a better future for, nonprofit theater.
In their presentation “Reimagining the Performing Arts,” Amplify leadership advisors David Schmitz, Liz Alsina and Samantha Cubias discussed their early research on the founding of a national endowment. Called the Collaborative Fund for the Performing Arts (CFPA), this endowment aims to create barrier-free access to live performing arts, hoping to raise $5 billion and grow to $50 billion over the next 25 years. The project is currently raising funds for the next phase of research.
James Rhee, owner of Red Helicopter, suggested that nonprofit theaters might be able to secure additional funding by turning donors into stakeholders, soliciting investments as well as philanthropic donations.
Alliance Theatre artistic directors Tinashe Kajese-Bolden and Chris Moses suggested that nonprofit theaters could secure more funding and audience engagement by investing in theater education. Because children who participated in Alliance’s early childhood programs entered school with a higher reading level, Kajese-Bolden argued, theater education could make an argument for funding from sources concerned with education, literacy and mental health.
In their presentation “Entrepreneurial Leadership in Nonprofit Theater,” Schleifer, along with Camila Grisel H.H. and Alesandra Reto Lopez of Lincoln Center Theater, described a need to look beyond “old school entrepreneurialism,” instead embracing current strategies like influencer marketing, collaboration, professional development and multiple artistic directors. They also looked ahead to “future entrepreneurialism,” suggesting tax credits, real estate, public advocacy and connections between the arts and health as potential areas for growth.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Herrmann, managing director of the Seattle Repertory Theatre, discussed the potential of inter-institution collaboration to lighten nonprofits’ loads. He described the partnership between Seattle Rep and the Seattle Children’s Theatre, which have merged their box office, IT, data, operations and finance teams under a joint CFO.
Multiple participants, including Akhtar, Guthrie Theater’s artistic director Joseph Haj, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s producing artistic director Blake Robison, Center Theatre Group’s Snehal Desai and Milwaukee Rep’s Chad Bauman, stressed the importance of putting on bold new work that challenges audiences, allowing them to engage with unfamiliar opinions and fostering dialogue and engagement with theatrical works.
Citing recent growth in video streaming and live comedy in his keynote address, Akhtar said, “The theater doesn’t need to become more like Netflix or more like comedy. But it does need to reckon with what those forms have understood about this moment — that people are hungry, that they'll show up for something that promises some form of aliveness and community, and that that relationship starts long before the curtain goes up and continues long after it goes down.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name Mike Fischer. This has been corrected.
