1. Develop language for discussing intrinsic benefits 2. Address the limitations of the research on instrumental benefits 3. Promote early exposure to the arts 4. Create circumstances for rewarding arts experiences

Let's take them on at a time.

1. Develop language for discussing intrinsic benefits.
Damn right. We need a better way of telling the story of why theatre is great. Right now, most explanations begin "there's just something about being in the room ..." blah blah blah. Spare me. Please, please, just fucking spare me.

One explanation I do like goes something like this:

You are a socially isolated individual who wants desperately to connect with a substantive world that may or may not exist.

Or, here's another one.

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That’s what it’s all finally about

Yeah, I'm not sure those are gonna go over too well in an elevator. Ben Cameron (Remember him?) does has some ideas on this as well.

One theatre I know has distilled its three primary values into three talking points, capturing them small cards wallet sized cards that can be easily pulled out mid conversation when precise verbiage is needed and precise supporting facts and figures are warranted. Every Board member has one. It clearly distills the value that they want to convey, and together, by singing the same songs in the same language, by consistently using the same three “key messages” as media trainers would say, the entire organization is working to build critical consciousness in its community. Let’s carry it further: if we really want to make that difference, it’s time to make those cards not only for every Board member, but for every actor. Every technician, every administrator, every custodian in our employ. No matter what the media does or doesn’t do for us, we have the power to build the consciousness from the bottom up.

Assume he's talking about "every actor. Every technician, every administrator, every custodian" everywhere in every theatre. Does the theatre as a whole have a mission? What is it? Is it the something we can all get behind?

You know who has a similar problem? Democrats. Oh yes, oh yes. For a really fantastic explanation of how democrats fail to "frame their ideas" read some George Lakoff. The general idea is that Democrats (and theatre-people) need to find a way of describing their vision of the world (and/or their art) in a way that is exciting and easily understood. Republicans sound like their ideas are simple, but (if you're talking about real Republicans) they're not. It's just that a lot of very smart people have spent a lot of time and effort to figure out how to distill their complicated ideas into simple, direct, passionate statements of values. It wouldn't hurt for a bunch of theatre people to do the same. (If only we could find a group of smart, engaged people who share ideas about theatre with each other in public on a regular basis. Hey! What just a darn minute ...)

2. Address the limitations of the research on instrumental benefits
Honestly, I think this is the least important of the 4 goals up there, but I acknowledge that as long as major funders have their heads in the sand about this stuff, we need to work-up some stronger arguments for the practical, observable good of the theatre.

3. Promote early exposure to the arts.
Don't take this for granted. Seriously. I did.

I assumed that most schools still had assemblies where the local Shakespeare troupe did scenes from R'n'J and things like that. I assumed that everyone did a play of some sort in 2nd or 4th grade. Not true anymore.

I was hired by a middle school to do a hip-hop theatre project with 6-8th graders. Guess what - a lot of them had never seen a play. The closet thing to theatre that some of these kids had experienced was Saturday Night Live. What a disappointment for me.

So, clearly we need to keep beating what we thought was a dead horse. We need more art for kids, better funded, and better-designed programs. It's not enough for kids to see plays. To develop of love of the theatre they need to see theatre, make theatre, and talk about theatre.

4. Create circumstances for rewarding arts experiences
"Arts organizations should consider it part of thier responsibility to educate their audiences to appreciate the arts."

I know, I don't really want to add this to my to do list either, but it's a really good point. Generally speaking, audiences do tend to enjoy art more when they have some idea of what's going on. Nobody wants to explain it all for them, but contextualizing challenging work, especially new work, can help people get past the fear factor (which more studies show is another reason people don't attend arts events - they're afraid they'll do it wrong). Without patronizing them or speaking down to them, we need to do what we can to help audiences get the most of their theatre-going experiences. More will come back if they do.

This focus requires that attention and resources be shifted away from supply side of the arts and toward cultivation of demand.

We need to rebuild our base (again, just like the Democratic party). We need a fundamental re-trenching of our values and goals. We need to make sacrifices. Some might even interpret the above statement as a recommendation to shift money away from producing art and towards promoting it. Well, hopefully that person doesn't mean marketing, but it's worth exploring. Lord knows we can't imagine theatres (small ones, anyway) having much less money to spend than they do now, but that might be what's required of us, for the good of the future. Of course, it'd be better if we just had more money to spend, so we could afford to "cultivate demand," but, given the choice of funding another show that nobody sees or a concrete effort to create long-term demand, I've gotta think that the latter is the better choice. I'm sure that won't be a popular position, but it may be necessary.

And what if some of us who are floundering as artists - approaching middle-age (I'm not quite there, but ...) and not making significant strides or changing the world, but sure are gaining a lot of experience and expertise - what if some of us put our brains and our time into building audiences for the future rather than making shows? Maybe we could make a bigger difference that way. That would be a huge sacrifice for anyone who considers making art a part of their identity, but it could be a great, great thing. And maybe no one has to give-up on making art completely, maybe we all just need to find some volunteer hours to put towards this project.

How else can we "cultivate demand"? What else can we do to help the art, other than making more art? Could we build an advocacy organization for small theatres? (League of Independent Theater made large?) TCG has you covered if your budget is over $50,000, if people are getting paid regularly, and you've got at least 50 performances a year, etc., etc., but that leaves most of us out.

Could we start more artists services organizations like the great Fractured Atlas?

Could organizations that already exist, like the Network of Ensemble Theaters, do more to address this problem?

No one's gonna solve this one for us. So, what can we do?