dear theatre
dear theatre,
this is not an intermission.
it is not a hiatus, a sabbatical, or a dark night.
this is not your 2-day diversity training
or your season planning retreat
held in a velvet-draped rehearsal room with a fresh spread of bagels and coffee.
this — this cannot be solved on a giant white board
or with audience subscriber data
or by booking the latest, greatest emerging playwright.
you see, we need you to start doing things differently.
your mission states your work is urgent, that it is about humanity.
well, this moment is urgent. this moment is about humanity.
we don’t need your seasons, your brochures, your refreshments.
what we need is your time. your space. your energy, your attention.
your resources, frankly. and we need them now.
we need them to ensure that we live long enough to continue actually making theatre
so that we can have an income
so that our children can have a planet that is habitable
because — and this should go without saying — we can’t make theatre if we’re dead.
at what point did it fail to occur to you that “butts in seats” might indeed be the problem:
not so much in practice, but in phrasing?
so before you ask us to take a seat, or start in with “buts” of your own, consider this:
when you asked us for feedback, did you wonder if the reason we don’t feel safe
has less to do with masks and sanitizer
or your “reopening plan”
or how many boxes of clorox wipes you bought
than the fact that safety, for many of us, was never actually guaranteed
and no amount of deep-cleaning will scrub that history away?
You can’t say there haven’t been suggestions.
demands.
and so, we are not unwrapping our candy as the lights dim
Nor are we sitting back, relaxing, or enjoying the show
We are not settling in to find out how the story ends
Because the play is already over.
as I said, this is not an intermission.
this is the overture.
And these are familiar motifs
are you listening?
I hope you were paying attention
because the curtain is heavy
and if we can’t lift it up
then it needs to come down.
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