Two or three issues that cause suffocation in the theater market

End of the 2023-24 winter season and a small reckoning is called for regarding issues that have occupied the theater community intensely this year as well.

Even if they are not new, the negative consequences they cause are magnified year by year, hindering the creativity of young and younger creators. Or by forcing them to accept chronic distortions and an absolutely problematic show production condition.

Being involved in the theater as a journalist, I learn a lot from the artists of the stage art about the way they struggle to exist and create. This insider knowledge helps me as a critic to perceive and treat performances as something much more complex than the stage event itself. There is a production context in which they are included and on which they depend, which crucially determines the artistic quality of their work but also the future of the Greek theater since young directors and actors are asked to work in a context that cuts their wings before well good time to fly.

A director (and actor) who presented his/her first work in 2012 confesses that artists of his/her generation (aged between 40 and 50 years) feel squeezed by the younger ones entering the theater market (and for whom there is interest as “new blood”) and the accomplished directors over 60 years old who are entrusted with the major productions and stages of the state theaters and organizations. They cannot secure a steady presence under production conditions that would help develop their craft.

They themselves are waiting to do their next performance through the financial support (annual grants) of the Ministry of Culture. In the current season (2023-4) around 2,000,000 euros were given to 90 teams from more than twice as many who applied. The work of the Committee appointed by the Ministry of Health is difficult. and which must decide how to “fairly” distribute the insufficient amount. It is typical of what the Grants Committee has pointed out, regarding the quality of grant applications, that there are “serious sloppiness and deficiencies, both in terms of the submitted artistic vision, and in terms of the proposed execution of a large portion of proposals”. The Commission “would like the proposals, apart from the description or summary of the proposed work, to focus on a more clear and unambiguous capture and documentation of the vision of the stage realization of the proposed productions while matching it to the budget expenditures, for the most substantial and more complete evaluation of them”.

Correct and justified but unachievable “desire” of the Grants Committee. Why are applicants being asked for a full rationale and costing for a performance that is to take place if the grant is approved! Therefore, specific agreements with contributors and actors cannot be made a year in advance, nor can the artistic vision be developed, which cannot but be connected to the space in which the performance will be set up and presented.

The problem of theaters

Artists/groups who do not have a place to present the performance for which they have received a grant, and have to rent a theater, convey to me the great problems they face, stressing that it is “unfair” that the larger sums (40,000 euros) receive suggestions of artists who have their own theater.

And it is unfair because a large part of the amount of the subsidy given to the “homeless” goes to the rent of the place they will be closed. To cite a specific recent example, of the 25,000 euros of the grant that a specific proposal received, 7,000 will go towards the rent of 16 shows! Of course the agreements vary from case to case – e.g. some theaters may ask in addition to the rent and a percentage of the receipts.

In other words, the multitude of artists who want to show their work and are looking for theater space has formed a new type of business, theaters that ensure a good income just from renting the space. The more people rent, the bigger the income for theater owners/operators. That’s why you go to some theaters and see a large number of different productions advertised on the banners every day of the week.

The question of the roof, interest, of course, of the uncontrollable number of graduates of drama schools who wish to deal with the art they have chosen, has serious consequences for the artistic creation itself as the person who rents must accept certain conditions. The most basic of these is that the scenery must to be light (so that it can be stored when other productions are playing at the same time) and to be set up and taken down easily and quickly. This explains why in many shows the scenography is rudimentary, limiting the creativity of the scenographers and ultimately affecting the quality of the final stage event.

A director who rents venues to present his shows told me: “Which theaters? At least half of the money they give you, if they give it to you, goes to places that are absolutely problematic, sometimes with torn seats, that do not ensure basic cleanliness, that do not provide technicians (we pay them extra) and caregivers, that do not provide lights or sound equipment ( we rent extra lights and projectors). The space is not provided for rehearsals – it is given a few days before the premiere. And there is no relevant control by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.”

Another problem that is directly related to the issue of shelter is the time constraints imposed by its deprivation. As the small sums given force directors and actors to work on other productions in order to survive, and as theaters are few in relation to demand, they often present the subsidized show in April and May – in other words at the end of winter season. This practically means that several shows that have been subsidized are presented at a time of the year that is not conducive to audience attendance. Indoors are not very attractive when the temperature rises. In addition, theater fans have seen several shows of the winter season and save their (financial) strength for the summer shows. It therefore undermines a criterion for the grant committee, whether the performance of the x grantee group has an audience response.

In addition, with the rise of serials that are a solution for actors’ finances, the following happens: many actors have a shoot in the morning, a rehearsal for a new show in the afternoon, and in the evening they play in a show that has already started. How can directors and actors work seriously under these conditions? Today, the “exclusivity” demands of directors like Karolos Koon and Lefteris Vogiatzis may seem unrealistic, but real artistic work cannot be subject to conditions of physical and mental exhaustion.

If we now take into account the money that a group has to pay if they want to stage a contemporary work for the rights of the author (4,000 euros was recently paid by a director for a contemporary American work), the fees of actors and directors and the cost of exposure in the media which is now necessary, we understand why a grant of 15,000-20,000 is insufficient and leads to the well-known discounts that fix the quality of a large part of the shows.

Once, to the expressed concerns about how and where things are progressing in modern Greek theatrical production, we said, it cannot, the market will be forced to self-regulate. Today we know that not only is it not self-regulating, but the problematic situation is swelling. Mainly for the young artists who neither receive sufficient artistic education (so they enter the theater job market with insufficient supplies) nor can believe and dedicate themselves to the art of the theater when they find around them a chaotic situation in which those who are very strong can survive stomach or supported by their families.

The Department of Performing Arts of the Ministry of Culture must bend with interest and sensitivity to all these problems, since theater is the major art in our country both in terms of the number of artists it employs and in terms of its (great) interest audience. A positive development for many would be the configuration and allocation of some spaces from the building stock of the Ministry of Health. to the homeless groups for rehearsals and performance cycles, as well as the formation of a Theater for Dance, where dance groups, similarly left at the mercy of extra-artistic factors, could prepare and present their performances. We will be back.