When Audiences Become Creditors -- Part 2

Following on this earlier post, I am re-visiting this issue of audiences who have paid for subscriptions or single tickets, only to have the producing entity go out of business.

Today's Boston Globe addresses a complaint from a subscriber to North Shore Music Theatre (R.I.P.) who was solicited for early subscription renewal. This gentleman is probably out of luck in terms of getting his money back (I'd be pissed too, by the way), but some theatres in the Boston region are helping soften the blow a bit for NSMT audiences. These two articles address moves by other arts orgs who are setting up programs to honor NSMT tickets at other theatres -- a smart move. It placates angry theatre consumers, and has the potential to keep these folks from swearing off the theatre entirely as an enterprise upon which to spend entertainment dollars. It also introduces new audiences to companies they might not otherwise patronize. That's good for both the audience member and the producer. Lemonade of out of lemons.

But it brings me back to Robert Reich's argument about how we can't go back to the way things were before. I guess I'm hung up a little on this with regards to the subscription model because if I were an average consumer, the last thing I'd so these days is buy a subscription to a theatre. (And I LOVE the theatre. I want my local companies to succeed.) But I give them several hundred dollars for me and my sweetheart to attend a season of plays, and how do I know they'll stick around as a company that long? Things might look good from the outside, but what if the joint is rotten at the core? It's this niggling worry that season-renewal brochures hope to dispel, with all the glossy pictures and wonderful descriptions. But since I know that no season brochure wants me to think about the possibility of the theatre going dark unexpectedly, I also know that brochure is not a medium I can trust when it comes to disclosing the fiscal/artistic health of an institution. No wonder nobody's buying. It's a crisis of confidence.

I don't think the subscription model is dead by any means, but I think it needs to be re-thought with an eye towards where we all might be headed, not what things looked like 10 years ago.