Sometimes a blog is great not because of what it says, but what it asks. This recent post by Scott over at Theatre Ideas has kept my mind racing all morning. In the midst of all the brouhaha calling for increased public funding of arts institutions, it's easy to forget that 80% of the theatregoing audience comes from the top 15% of the income scale. Given this, it seems almost criminal that theatres are subsidizing their ticket prices for such a wealthy audience base.

But we want to keep ticket prices low so that theatregoers on the lower end of the ticket scale can come, right? Except we only want them to come on our terms. We want to "educate" our audience to appreciate the upper-middle class, college educated aesthetic values that we, as artists, value and that our upper-middle class, college educated patrons appreciate.

This echoes some of the themes in Anthony Neilson's recent blog, where he admonishes playwrights to "not be so boring." Taken together, both authors seem to agree that, in order to win back audiences, theatre needs to recapture its association with entertainment rather than continuing to marginalize itself in the ivory tower of the critical and academic elite.

Here's the full article, including some thoughtful commentary. Theatre Ideas: Arts Funding