Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1969 - 5

The Problem is Product-What's Going to
Play Here? Lack of ticket sales clearly is not
a problem at Lincoln Center or Los Angel es.
The problem is really what sort of attractions
these centers are going to sell tickets for.
In consulting communities which are planning new arts centers, we always ask What's
going to play here?-Because the answer to
this question has as much bearing on the
economic structure of the center as it has
on artistic matters. The big problem then is
the product. Where are all these cultural
centers (or performing arts centers if you
prefer) goinlil to get it?
A Proposal: An Alliance of Arts Centers I
suggest that these centers, acting together
as a cooperative enterprise, could not only
attract major national and international artists and companies, but could attract them
on a financial basis that individual centers
would find impossible to produce on their
own.
City Hall Acting to Preserve Theatre District
Richard Weinstein: I am here because circumstances in New York threaten the destruction of the theatre district. .. I've found
myself made responsible for the future of
some 32 theatres that were in the path of
expanding office development in Manhattan,
and that most certainly would ultimately all
have been destroyed. The city now has decided to take some action to prevent that
destruction.

I am a specimen of a new kind of individual
that you are going to have to deal withwho is halfway between the world of culture and the world of politics and . . .administration. As a civil servant. .. 1 have
been obliged to make decisions that I hope
someday people will be trained to make.

And I think part of it is reflected in the isolation of the arts from the mainstream of
American life-American pol itical life and
American commercial life.

I don't believe there is a cultural revolution
in this country. I believe there are now less
people interested in serious culture than
there were in Thomas Jefferson's time. I
think it's a conceit of thll glossy publications
that there is a specific and enl ightened interest in serious culture in this country.

also characterized by a split between the
serious th eatre which fades off into the amateur theatre, and so-called professional theatre. The people that I've met from the regional theatre, for example . . .seem to have
a contempt forthecommercial Broadway theatre; and Broadway theatre seems to have

I think our cultural centers, from the point
of view of architecture, symbolically represent this isolation. They are patterned after
the Acropolis-which is, after all, a 2,200
Dependence upon Patrons has Isolated Ser- year old idea.
. And they generally seem
ious Culture from Life's Mainstream
to have an atmosphere which to many arI detect in the attitude of many people in chitects symbolizes a quasi-religious Acrothe theatre that same longing for the patron- polean nostalgia. We would never dream of
for the Pope-that exists among archi tects building our best airports or office buildings
and painters. The form of political system or even our homes with the same sensibil- *
we live in has a very different form and! ity that we build our cultural centers.
feeling from the political systems that produced . . . the current of patronage that still
seems to be the sentimental aspiration of
so many people in the arts in this country. Cultural Centers and Theatres are DisconThe attitude of patronage-that assumption tinuous with the Rest of Life; Symbolize
that the patron, or the angel, would always Isolation
be there-is consistent with a form of gov- They are also remarkable in that they are
ernment and a way of life that is about 500 discontinuous with the rest of our life. Theyears old. I think the consequences of than aters are used for a very small part of the
attitude can be seen in the isolation of ser- day.
ious culture from the mainstream of Ameri- The isolation and uniqueness of what purcan life.
ports to be serious culture in our country is

Izenour Consultations

~ THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

DECEMBER,1969

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