The cultural fabric of America is fraying due to the closure of performing arts events around the country due to the Covid-19 virus. While these precautionary measures are absolutely the right thing to do, they do have consequences.
Our government will soon announce plans bailing out the airline and travel industries. What you won’t hear them discuss, and it is highly unlikely they would even contemplate this, is support for the performing arts and the artists who create and perform. But we, who love the arts and know how much they enrich our lives, can.
Rather than ask for refunds for canceled performances, I’d urge you to consider donating the price of your ticket to the company that has had to outright cancel remaining or upcoming performances. (Many, but not all, such donations will be tax-deductible.)
Certainly longer-running shows will probably have the flexibility to offer you an exchange of tickets for another date. But what of something like Sweet Land by a small company like The Industry? A company that continually invests their assets into their next creative endeavor? Or CAP UCLA which just today announced the suspension of the rest of their 2019-2020 season?
Profits are not guaranteed in the arts. If you drive through town you’ll often see banners along the streets for LA Opera or Center Theatre Group or other performing arts organizations. Those banners are only available for non-profit companies. Even one as large as Center Theatre Group is a non-profit.
The federal government does very little to support plays, musicals, dance, music, artists etc… This isn’t Europe where the arts are supported by the government. In fact, America has a pretty lousy reputation for trying its best to not support the arts. In his most recent budget, Trump has suggested eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts – again!
As PBS says their programming is made possible by viewers like you. So are the performing arts. But ticket sales don’t cover all operating costs. Imagine what the cost of all these refunds would be not just in the short-term, but in the long-term.
And what of the actors, singers, dancers, musicians and more who make their livelihoods by sharing their talents with us?
Chances are that if you can afford a ticket to the opera, a play, the ballet, a concert or a musical, a certain percentage of your income is expendable. If it truly is expendable, and you value the arts as much as I do, I hope you’ll think twice about requesting a refund for a canceled performance.
In fact, while you’re thinking about that, perhaps a donation to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and/or The Actors Fund, can be added to your charitable donations to help performers who find themselves out of work. Why wait until December to make last-minute tax-deductible donations when those dollars can be put to very good use right now?
We are all going to make it through this crisis, but no one can predict how long this pandemic will last. The longer it goes on the closer we get to the point where companies large and small have to close or significantly scale back their programming. The end result is we will all be much poorer.
But when it is over, we will all be clamoring for the opportunity to share in the magic of live performance with one another as quickly as possible. So I ask, brothers (and sisters), can you spare your dimes?
Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt