{"id":1994019,"date":"2023-08-08T08:10:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T12:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/to-be-woke-or-not-to-be-that-is-the-question-flailing-regional-theaters-must-answer\/"},"modified":"2023-08-08T08:18:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T12:18:29","slug":"to-be-woke-or-not-to-be-that-is-the-question-flailing-regional-theaters-must-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/to-be-woke-or-not-to-be-that-is-the-question-flailing-regional-theaters-must-answer\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional theaters must decide whether to embrace the concept of being woke or not."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fto-be-woke-or-not-to-be-that-is-the-question-flailing-regional-theaters-must-answer%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1994019&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2>In every way \u200cpossible,\u2064 the Covid pandemic smothered live theater.<\/h2>\n<p>Broadway shut down. Audiences vanished. Crew and actors clocked in as nonessential.<\/p>\n<p>In compliance with strict lockdowns, professional theater\u200d companies went even further than schools and restaurants, with some policing\u2064 themselves into near nonexistence. \u2064Where big theater companies cut back and gobbled up relief funds, smaller ones simply died off.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-497914233\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c020f76eccf604f7f0a56e42e12091c7 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c020f76eccf604f7f0a56e42e12091c7\"><\/div>\n<p>Three years out, live theater may be clawing its way back. Gross Broadway ticket sales \u2062are slightly\u2062 higher than they were last year. But for regional theaters around the country, and particularly on the West \u2062Coast, the \u200crecovery is anemic.<\/p>\n<p>The trend of fewer plays, canceled\u200d seasons, and closed theaters is now so prominent that even The New York Times is\u200d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/07\/23\/theater\/regional-theater-crisis.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noticing<\/a>. With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/to-be-woke-or-not-to-be-that-is-the-question-flailing-regional-theaters-must-answer\/\" title=\"Regional theaters must decide whether to embrace the concept of being woke or not.\">worried theater\u2063 folk mulling culprits \u2014\u200b inflation<\/a>, streamed entertainment, the \u2062exodus from cities, pandemic relief running out \u2014 few are seeing another, perhaps\u200c deadlier factor: regional theaters\u2019 excessive focus on race, social\u2064 justice, and woke ideology.<\/p>\n<p>Displeased audiences may not be as unified (or viral) as those protesting \u2064Bud\u200d Light, but they are responding \u2014 by not buying tickets. Theaters in New York City, Chicago, and even Kansas City watched \u200cthis \u2062happen in real-time, when plays with obvious social justice-flavored topics (racism in boxing or the \u2062daily struggles of immigrant \u2062life in a sanctuary city, to name a few) underperformed dramatically. But along the scenic\u200d West Coast, \u200bthat flavoring is a heavy saturation, and the number of popular, destination-driven theater companies nearing collapse is\u200b jaw-dropping.<\/p>\n<p>From L.A.\u2019s Center Theater Group, which made headlines for layoffs, to the Bay Area\u2019s California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) and up I-5 to \u200bthe Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), regional\u2064 theaters that put so-called \u201cdiversity, equity, \u200cand inclusion\u201d (DEI) platitudes centerstage are paying a heavy\u200c price. In jarring announcements, neither the OSF nor Cal Shakes is promising another season.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-404fea1009f4b4d6c0b0362aa9dad8e7 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-404fea1009f4b4d6c0b0362aa9dad8e7\"><\/div>\n<p>If they survive, it will be with a diminished\u2063 presence in a region\u2063 unusually \u2064friendly to the performing arts and well-suited to outdoor performance. Though few are asking, regional theater\u2019s\u200b lock-stop devotion to far-left ideology raises a hard question \u2014 can theater even survive the revolution? \u200cWithout \u200da broad, paying audience \u2064(whose views may lean left but otherwise \u2063fall across\u2064 the political spectrum), how long can cash-strapped\u2062 stages keep the lights on?<\/p>\n<p>For long-suffering theatergoers, locked down and now pelted with what Center Theater Group calls \u201csocial responsibility\u201d in nearly \u200bevery play, Shakespeare\u2019s description of Scottish tyranny under Macbeth comes to mind.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Alas, our country sinks beneath the yoke;<br \/>It weeps, \u2062it bleeds, and each new day a gash<br \/>Is \u2062added to her wounds.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Yes, the lockdowns were regrettable. Yes, live theater suffered.\u2063 But\u2062 from here on out, each gash is self-induced.<\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, racial animus\u2064 and social justice\u2063 programming aren\u2019t new trends, as far as theater goes. Even before\u2062 the \u200bGeorge Floyd riots \u2014 which prompted hundreds of theater professionals (including household\u2063 names like Lin Manuel-Miranda) to \u200dsign a racist initiative \u200bdemanding \u201cBIPOC\u201d artists, programming, and staffing \u2014 the tight-knit community\u2019s reputation for left-wing causes preceded itself.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-b5b7adc93ccab491f1bd1ba81aef0f60 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-b5b7adc93ccab491f1bd1ba81aef0f60\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Left-Wing Oregon Theater Goes Full Woke<\/h2>\n<p>But the fact that regional theaters are under immense pressure from Broadway heavyweights to tow the DEI line and make miracles \u2064happen doesn\u2019t\u200b concern \u2063the \u2063audience.\u200b For them, \u200dafter lockdowns, fewer plays as well\u200c as\u200b plays \u200dstuffed with racially driven moralizing are further insult.<\/p>\n<p>The Oregon Shakespeare Festival in particular seems bent on following such racial initiatives to almost certain doom. With a bizarre new mission statement, creative \u2063teams reflecting an exhaustive bias \u2063toward \u200cnonwhite professionals, and production choices that color Shakespeare\u2019s plots \u2063and settings with predictable, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/devin-nunes-tees-off-on-biden-we-cant-counter-hypersonic-missile-launch-with-better-pronoun-usage\/\" title=\"Devin Nunes Tees Off On Biden: \u2018We Can\u2019t Counter Hypersonic Missile Launch With Better Pronoun Usage\u2019\">left-wing dogma<\/a>, something really is rotten in Denmark.<\/p>\n<p>The consequences \u200cspell trouble for Ashland, Oregon, a relaxed college town powered by the \u200cOSF\u2019s four stages and nine-month season. The festival\u2019s vast, loyal \u2063audience is now a fraction of what it was four years ago. By its \u2062own admission, the operating budget flounders.<\/p>\n<p>Artistic Director \u2064Nataki\u200c Garrett resigned last May, but the administration still boasts\u200d its own team of \u200cIDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and\u200c Accessibility) strategists. With the festival\u2019s \u200bbroad repertoire of professional actors all but thinned out, swollen\u200d production teams now come with \u201ccultural competency\u201d experts.<\/p>\n<p>If few \u200coutside left-wing Ashland are applauding, one can\u2019t blame them. With fewer plays, the festival is quickly losing the\u200c small-scale\u2064 advantage it shared with Broadway or London\u2019s West End: many plays \u200dhappening all at once in a single location. Tourists or backpackers (the town straddles the Siskiyou\u2063 Mountains) could waltz into \u2064town and\u200c snag nosebleed seats for as little as $20. Houses filled out \u2063in the summer and regularly sold out on weekends.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Shakespeare Companies\u2064 Sour on Shakespeare<\/h2>\n<p>More sadly, the OSF is performing fewer \u2064of Shakespeare\u2019s plays than ever before. Along with \u201cRent\u201d\u2063 and \u201cThe Three Musketeers,\u201d the 2023 season offers \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d and an \u2062urban-themed \u201cRomeo and Juliet.\u201d That\u2019s down\u200c from a long-running average of four or five Shakespearian works annually. Not\u200d staging Shakespeare, or only staging him in a way that thrusts race, national guilt, or LGBT themes centerstage, \u200dsends a clear message to theatergoers: Get with the program or don\u2019t bother to come.<\/p>\n<p>Sure enough, they aren\u2019t bothering.<\/p>\n<p>Families who once drove hundreds of miles to see \u201cHamlet\u201d or \u201cHenry V\u201d in the\u2063 open-air Elizabethan theater \u2062know the tune \u2064has changed. OSF board member Diane Yu notes \u200dthat ticket sales, which previously brought in \u206370 to 80 percent of the festival\u2019s operating budget, have plummeted.<\/p>\n<p>Even with a purported $39 million endowment,\u2062 the 88-year-old festival\u200c appears\u2063 to be in poor shape. The OSF website begs visitors to help raise an emergency $2.5 million, without which, (it claims) there may not be another season.<\/p>\n<p>Short of government intervention, which would make the OSF closer to the state-subsidized \u2062theater companies of England, or Bertolt Brecht\u2019s lavish, \u2064East German propaganda plays, the country\u2019s largest professional repertory\u2064 company might\u200c be ending a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/north-korea-holds-multiple-events-to-celebrate-10-years-of-invincible-leadership-under-kim-jong-un\/\" title=\"North Korea Holds Multiple Events to Celebrate 10 Years of \u201cInvincible Leadership\u201d Under Kim Jong-Un\">wildly successful run<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With loyal fans across the northwest, a long-running \u201cShakespeare in\u2064 the Classroom\u201d workshop\u200c for educators, and programming\u200c that delighted thousands of\u200c students annually, the OSF\u2019s shoes will be difficult to fill. But if the woke takeover of the OSF upstages everyone else, it\u2019s not for\u200b lack of trying.<\/p>\n<p>South of San Francisco, the beleaguered\u200b Santa \u2064Cruz Shakespeare is casting a \u201claser focus\u201d on\u2062 social \u200bjustice. \u200bFarther north, the Marin\u2063 Shakespeare Company is fighting so-called systemic\u2064 racism with \u201cShakespeare and Social Justice.\u201d In \u2063leftist Seattle, theater companies wave the\u200d same DEI banner and bemoan the\u200d pillage of ancestral, Native American lands.<\/p>\n<p>Whether or not such mea culpas will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-first-videos-pictures-of-tim-tebows-nfl-comeback-go-viral-on-social-media\/\" title=\"WATCH: First Videos, Pictures Of Tim Tebow\u2019s NFL Comeback Go Viral On Social Media\">increase ticket sales<\/a> is another story.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Collapse\u200b of the Cal Shakes<\/h2>\n<p>A final case study \u200cis the DEI-addled California Shakespeare Theater. Earlier this summer, Cal Shakes announced its 2023 season won\u2019t feature any of its own plays. Rather, and to recover from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/broadway-upholds-whiteness-lea-micheles-glee-co-star-reacts-after-funny-girl-casting-news\/\" title=\"\u2018Broadway Upholds Whiteness\u2019: Lea Michele\u2019s \u2018Glee\u2019 Co-Star Reacts After \u2018Funny Girl\u2019 Casting News\">declining ticket sales<\/a> and relaunch in 2024, Cal\u2063 Shakes is\u200c lending its splendid outdoor amphitheater in Berkeley Hills to a \u2064coterie\u2063 of outside\u2064 performers.<\/p>\n<p>Audiences who made a\u200b habit of arriving early with food, drink, and picnic \u2063blankets before taking their seats \u2064can now look forward\u200d to an \u201cAnimal Liberation Orchestra,\u201d a standup night\u2062 with Native American comedians, and a \u201cStorytelling Mosaic\u201d focused on peacebuilding, to name a few offerings.<\/p>\n<p>As a lone IV drip, the company\u2019s dramaturge offers an online class: \u201cShakespeare and the Modern Mind.\u201d \u200b <em>Peacebuilding<\/em>? <em>Animal Liberation<\/em>? Activists a few BART stops away can \u200chardly wait.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically enough, and before swapping out the 2023 season \u2063for a politically correct talent show, Cal Shakes surveyed \u200dsome 570\u200c of its audience members. Even\u200d in the hyper-leftist Bay Area, its summary of findings makes for ironic, even laughable reading:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>In the \u200bsurvey we asked you to\u2064 prioritize\u2062 what you value most about Cal Shakes. You ranked the Setting (The Bruns Ampitheater)\u2064 the highest, \u200band Plays\u2063 second. \u2026 [O]ther \u2063aspects of Cal Shakes\u2019 offerings, such as education programming, Shakespeare, Equity Diversity and Inclusion \u2026 all those other \u2064priorities combined are not valued \u2062as highly \u200bas either the location or the fact that we do theater.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>People want plays. They want them onstage\u200c and\u200c preferably in a good location. Could the\u200b Bard himself have made it any plainer?<\/p>\n<p>That a Shakespeare company near a rich, culture-loving \u2063region\u2064 needs its audience to state the obvious might be the comic relief \u2062we need right now. \u200bThat \u200ccompanies like \u200dthe OSF, after 80 \u200cyears and\u200c 37 cycles through the canon, are crossing \u2062a point of no return is a tragedy.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-5d4addd27547033390d9480a800b2530 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-5d4addd27547033390d9480a800b2530\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the Covid pandemic, live theater was severely impacted. Broadway closed, audiences disappeared, and crew and actors were deemed nonessential. Professional theater companies, surpassing schools and restaurants, enforced strict lockdown measures, almost eradicating themselves. While larger theater companies reduced expenses and received financial aid, others struggled to survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2265,"featured_media":1994020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1994019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1994019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1994020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1994019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1994019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1994019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}