ABSTRACT
Much has changed in the decade since I published Running Theaters: Best Practices for Managers and Leaders (Webb, 2004). This resource shared practices and points of view from forty North American performing arts center (PAC) leaders on topics ranging from programming, audience development, and fund-raising to the particular challenges of managing historic and campus-based theaters. In rereading the book, I am struck by the passion of the facility managers, their embrace of the complexity and challenges of running a performing arts venue, and their general confidence about the future. In the early 2000s, some concern was expressed about government funding and audiences for the traditional (i.e., Western European) performing arts disciplines. But the general sense of this accomplished set of managers was that the future would unfold in reasonable ways and that they would be able to find their way forward.
