We have the good fortune of living in what is considered, if not a big city, an extremely important one. As such, we have some of the finest arts and venues anywhere in the country.
It's not uncommon to cough up hundreds of dollars to go see Opera at the Kennedy Center, The Music Man at Arena Stage, world-class Shakespeare at the Folger or The Shakespeare Theater Company. More locally, the highly regarded Alexandria Symphony Orchestra in our own West End Alexandria backyard, and the Tony award-winning Signature within spitting distance offers some of the biggest, hottest tickets for live theater throughout the DC region.
What is baffling is that while true, organic, local community theater isn't lost amid all these performing arts giants, there does seem to be a bit of a piggyback for what community theater thinks it can charge. When I check ticket prices for some of the biggest shows to go to the Ford Theater or Signature, it's common to see the price soar above $50 for decent seats and quality shows.
Conversely, when I see local theaters charge more than $25 for mostly free labor in its cast and crew, and less-than-professional, albeit fun and spirited performances, I'm left wondering if the venture was worth it. Or if there would be a more vibrant community theater scene with a more dedicated audience, if it didn't cost so much to attend.
If the logic is that live theater fans in this area are accustomed to high-end, high-priced performances, they won't bat an eye at what is ultimately a ticket price in the same ballpark but a theater experience that falls below expectation.
Price does correlate to expectation. If I pay $45 for a community show and it ends up being close to Broadway quality, I’m a happy theatergoer indeed. Likewise, if I pay $15 for a local play and the actors are obviously volunteers with more discretionary rehearsal time than talent, but on all counts it’s tells a story, and makes me feel something, then I consider myself equally a happy theatergoer, a patron of the local arts, if you will.
And I don’t consider this to be cheap. It’s when the $15 show, in the rinky-dink venue charges me more than $30 a ticket, do I feel swindled. But I get it. There is a need to build a theater community for the future, but let’s be honest: High art it is not, and when actors and crew often come free, shouldn’t grant-makers be the one to make up the difference?
