ABSTRACT
When we ask people to fork over their money on our schedule, and to sit in the dark for a couple of hours, what is our responsibility in considering them? We all have seen the precipitous decline of audiences at the mid- and large-sized regional theatres, and those that are still coming get older every year. Regional theatres continue to slide into irrelevancy in the cultural conversation of our communities. In the United States, racial and socioeconomic demographics have changed significantly since the dawn of the regional theatre movement. Each year it becomes harder and harder to justify the great swaths of resources the larger institutions swallow, when it is the smaller, community theatres that are actually essential in people’s lives.
