Full House

I was sitting in a Board meeting the other day, and we were hashing out some important issues, when our “working dad” spoke about the idea of filling 100% of our houses every performance as a goal. What a genius! No, seriously, that comment struck me as a particularly profound and inspiring idea. We are so used in our industry to playing below capacity, especially when we come to budgeting, and we have to realistic, so we project for houses that are indeed way below capacity. And in the process, we translate our current reality to be an unchangeable fact. So, it follows, that at some point we forget that consistently full houses were the goal from day one.

Its both interesting and useful for me, to take it back to the most simple and obvious of notions, because they are the ones we tend most easily to forget, or at least to take for granted, at which point we have effectively forgotten. So the question is perhaps not, how do we earn enough income from a show to remain viable as a theatre, but instead, how do we fill each and every one of our houses, while making sure we make enough money to stay alive. I see this as a subtle but important distinction, and perhaps one that will help us stay important and sustainable as an art form. But what do I know? These are just some thoughts. I’d love to hear what people think. Here’s a picture of the La Scala opera house to perhaps motivate some inspiration.