Live theater is in crisis. Here’s how to help Kansas City stages like KCRep’s recover | Opinion

American theater is in crisis.

As the artistic director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre, the largest nonprofit producing theater in Missouri, I was recently interviewed for a story on the current state of the American theater for a July 23 New York Times article by Michael Paulson. The American theater, with a market size of $9 billion and serving millions of audience members in communities nationwide, is suffering from a relentless series of blows dealt by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since 2020, more than 35 professional theaters have closed their doors. Twice as many suspended critical programming, laid off staff or were forced to pause performances indefinitely, including the Public Theater of New York, Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago and the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles. Desperate pleas from prestigious theaters include Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which launched its “The Show Must Go On” campaign to raise about $10 million just to survive this season.

What’s going on?

One of the first industries to close during the pandemic and the slowest to return, the theatergoing “habit” has been disrupted. Just 10.3 % of Americans attended a musical last year, down from 16.5 % in 2017; and just 4.5 % attended a play, down from 9.4 %, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

While federal stimulus was a critical lifeline in 2020-21, that funding has ended. With ticket revenue down, rising inflation (from steel for scenery to health insurance) and audience contributions down 40%, according to marketing consultant TRG Arts, the American theater is on a precipice.

Early in the pandemic, KCRep made hard organizational structure decisions and exercised caution in utilizing emergency federal stimulus to sustain our theater and continue mission critical service. With the help of our endowment, support from the Kansas City community and a dedicated core of audiences and donors, KCRep is relatively stable compared to most theaters nationwide.

But this is not true for the majority of local or national theaters. We are in the midst of a national theater crisis and KCRep’s “relative stability” is, of course, relative to an industry in profound crisis. KCRep’s future alongside all Kansas City theaters including the Black Repertory Theater of Kansas City, KC Melting Pot Theatre, Whim Productions, Spinning Tree Theatre, Theatre for Young America, KC Public Theatre, Black Box KC, Music Theater Heritage, Unicorn Theatre, Coterie Theatre, Kansas City Actors Theatre, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and many, many more are at a critical inflection point.

Live performance builds community, opens minds

I’m writing to ask you to show up for theater in your community and in Kansas City. I’m here to invite you to experience something live.

Live theater fires the imagination, creates connections, builds community, reveals new perspectives and invites you to dance in someone else’s shoes and imagine new worlds and new ways of being. Theater entertains, inspires and opens minds. It is a window to the soul and a window to the world.

Kansas City theater is here for you, for me, and for all of us.

This is an ecstatic call for support, investment, and celebration of local live performances. Invest in your local theaters now so live theater experiences for our community thrive in the future.

Here are some ways you can celebrate and lift up theater in Kansas City:

• Buy a ticket today to see some live theater this week.
• Build some community of your own by organizing friends and colleagues for a fun and energizing night of theater, connection, and conversation.
• Donate or volunteer at theaters that invest in, inspire and create safe and creative spaces and programs for young people exploring their place in the world through theater arts.
• Corporate and foundation leaders: I invite you to think boldly about investing in and sustaining our vibrant theater ecosystem. We need you now. Theater in Kansas City is an economic engine on its own and essential to the cultural vibrancy of our community and recruiting power of this region.
• And for those with politics on your mind, please advocate for bills such as the Creative Economy Revitalization Act now in Congress, and support funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. Call your representatives and let them know the performing arts are important to you and your community.
• Mayor Quinton Lucas and our friends at City Hall: Let’s leverage this inflection point for our theater community and have some dynamic conversations about the cultural and economic impact of live theater. Think radically about how our city can invest in the future of a diverse and thriving Kansas City theater community.

As KCRep gears up to celebrate our 60th anniversary season, we do so with a strong sense of purpose and positive momentum. With your support, we eagerly look forward to the next 60 years, creating meaningful impact in our community through the magic and transformational power of live theater.