Sunday, February 10, 2008

A Theater Destination

The recent production of A LION IN WINTER at the Victorian Theater in Denver thrilled full houses. The proprietors, hopefully, took in about $4000 each weekend. That will easily service the mortgage. Other expenses will be covered easily and there might be something left over for cast and crew. Responding to popular demand, an additional weekend was added. That additional weekend will really squeeze cast and crew of the next production, STONES IN HIS POCKETS. Striking LION's set and building of STONE's set will run right into each other. Cast and crew for STONES will have to work more in a compressed time frame familiarizing themselves with the set before opening as scheduled (months ago) on February 22. Cast and crew committed themselves (months ago), clearing their schedules. LION cannot be extended any further without completely screwing all involved with STONES. The proprietors of the Vic - and the public - will never know how long LION might have run. There will never be A LION IN WINTER poster placarded with a banner reading, "Now, in it's 58th smash week!" That only happens in London or New York, cities where tourists flock to see theater.

And Denver could never be a destination for theater lovers. Perish the thought! Theater could never reach deeply enough here to sustain extended runs. Drab, humdrum Denverites could never be transformed into theater lovers. Not on a mass scale! Certainly not!

But why not? We are the largest metropolis, centered in a huge geographic region. There is a tremendous amount of talent and an adequate stock of performance space. Much of that space is first rate and underutilized (the Lakewood Cultural Center, for instance). Much of that space is quaint and intimate. There are a handful of fine playwrights (one of extraordinary natural gifts). Our climate and scenery would be most congenial to the motion picture industry. A lively theater scene would serve as a pipeline for a motion picture industy. A motion picture industry, inevitably, would boost tourism. All reinforces all and all would benefit from a thriving theater scene.

The two most significant obstacles local theatrical producers face when pondering extending a run are: 1) the necessity of scheduling space well in advance, in 4-6 weeks blocks of time; and, 2) The inability of local actors to make open-ended commitments of their time. The second problem can be solved easily enough by the producers themselves. All local producers have a list of actors in their heads that they can call on in an emergency. That list in their heads must be better systematized - and shared among each other. The first obstacle is the big one. All producers face rents or mortgages which must be serviced. They must schedule runs in 4-6 blocks with a minimal amount of dark time, hopefully less than two weeks between the closing of one show and the opening of the next.

There is plenty of underutilized performance space in the metro area. The City and County of Denver (and most of the suburban municipal governments) own much of that space. Why not use that space, especially that which is municipally owned? Why not move A LION IN WINTER to city owned space, rent free? Just charge a conservative percentage of the profits? Let the theater owners, cast and crew reap the windfall. It seems such a cheap and simple thing to do which might bring plenty of bang for the buck.