Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Theatre 291
Arena Stage was founded in Washington, D.C. In the next
fifteen years other “regional” theatres opened, including
Houston’s Alley Theatre, San Francisco’s Actors’ Workshop,
and Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theatre. Now there are
nearly five hundred such professional theatres, operating
in almost every state.
These theatres, though professional to varying degrees,
are nearly all not-for-profit (or nonprofit)—meaning they
are in business not to make money but to create art. Notfor-profit
theatres receive box-office revenue, of course,
but they supplement that income with government and
foundation grants and from private donations that, if the
theatre has been legally registered as a nonprofit corporation,
provide tax deductions to the donors. Some of these
theatres, such as the Public Theatre, the Manhattan Theatre
Club, and Playwrights Horizons, operate as part of New
York’s off-Broadway. The vast majority, however, are
scattered throughout the country and produce more than
two thousand productions each year, providing Americans
in hundreds of cities and towns an opportunity to
see professional theatre, often at its very best. An annual
Tony Award for regional theatre cites the most distinguished
of these groups, and thirty-six such theatres have
been so honored, some in large cities such as Washington,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Minneapolis, Seattle,
Boston/Cambridge, and some in smaller ones, including
Williamstown (Massachusetts), Waterford (Connecticut),
and Costa Mesa (California).
Nonprofit theatres vary enormously in character.
Some concentrate on world classics, some on new
American plays, some on the work of specific cultures,
some on the European avant-garde, many on theatrical
experiments. Some operate in ninety-nine-seat spaces
with extremely modest five-figure budgets; others on
multiple stages with funds to match.
The regional theatre is where the vast majority of
America’s best-known plays have first been shaped and
exposed since the 1970s. As a result, what was known as a
regional theatre “movement” during the 1960s and 1970s
has now become, quite simply, America’s national theatre.
More and more, the American national press is attuned
to major theatre happenings in the nonprofit sector. And
more and more, the Broadway audiences, while admiring
the latest hit, are aware they are seeing that hit’s second,
third, or fourth production. National theatre prizes such
as the Pulitzer, once awarded only for Broadway productions,
are now increasingly claimed by off-Broadway theatres
(David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole, Lynn Nottage’s
Ruined, Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park, Quiara Alegria
Hudes’ Water by the Spoonful and Annie Baker’s The
Flick) and by regional companies (Steppenwolf’s August:
Osage County, Hartford Stage’s Water by the Spoonful, and
the American Theatre Company of Chicago’s Disgraced.)
World-renowned actors such as Al Pacino, John Mahoney,
Dianne Wiest, Mary Louise Parker, Maggie Gyllenhaal,
Matthew Broderick, and Brian Dennehy, once seen live
only on Broadway stages and on tour, now also appear in
many of the country’s nonprofit theatres. For the first time
in America’s history, the vast majority of Americans can
see first-class professional theatre created in or near their
Most American Shakespeare
festivals make a point of being,
indeed, festive—none more
so than the Utah Shakespeare
Festival, which each year performs
The Greenshow before each
evening performance. Staged
beside the Festival’s replica of a
Shakespearean-era theatre and
performed by interns selected from
applicants around the country, the
show is free to all comers—those
attending the play and those just
showing up to see a family-friendly
show that mixes Elizabethan
singing and dancing with comic
skits reflecting early English
entertainment. This bouncy 2008
USF Greenshow was directed by
Kirsten Sham. © Photo by Karl Hugh
Utah Shakespearean Festival