Favorite Quotes Volume XIX: A contrarian quote.

By Ken Davenport

This entry marks a first for the Favorite Quotes category on The Producer’s Perspective: this is the first time that I’ve ever quoted someone twice.

One of the most common doomsday questions heard in marketing offices all over the country is, “How are we ever going to get people in their 20s to come to the theater???”

Usually there’s so much silence after that query, you’d think God pushed the mute button.

Last week, when that question came up at the Broadway League Conference Town Hall Meeting, Producer and now Two-Time Producer’s Perspective Quotee Mike Isaacson gave us this goodie:

Why is it that we are always asking how we’re going to get people in their 20s to the theater? Do you ever hear nightclubs wondering how they are going to get 50 year olds to go drinking until 4 AM?

Obviously Mike didn’t mean that we should ignore young audiences altogether. He knows, as you should, that (insert Whitney Houston’s voice here) “the children are our future” and we should dedicate time and resources towards expanding that audience.

But that time, and those resources, should be proportional to where the majority of our audience comes from (which can differ for each show).

And could it be that theater, like an expensive wine or traveling to see the pyramids, is an acquired taste that comes with age . . . and more importantly, disposable income?

If you’re in your 20s, and you only see one show a month now, will that increase when you’re in your 30s? 40s?

Let’s hope and pray that this happens. Actually, let’s do more than that. Let’s do something about it as well.

Acting and Advertising have a lot in common.

Advice from an expert: Vol. VIII. Founder of the Fringe (and Tony Nominator) tells how to get involved!