Tragic Magic

Last night, a group of about 25 Bay Area theatre community people got together at the Exit Theatre in San Francisco for the latest in an ongoing series of Theatre Salons. Organized by theatre director Mark Jackson, actress Beth Wilmurt, director John Wilkins, producer Kimball Wilkins, theatre critic Rob Avila and yours truly, the Salons aim to bring folks from disparate corners of the local performing arts landscape for wine, food and discussion on a topic of pressing cultural interest of the founding committee's choice.

On this occasion, we decided to talk about the current elephant in the room -- "theatre in the new, new, new economy" -- seeing the deluge of stories of financial struggle bouncing around our community of late e.g. the recent death threats sent out by The Magic Theatre (artistic director, Loretta Greco, pictured above) and Shakespeare Santa Cruz, the broader issue of dwindling theatre coverage in the press etc, as a jumping off point for a wider discussion about what is happening to our little eco-system. We specifically wanted to mull over a few questions such as: Do these close-to-the-point-of-no-return theatre companies and newspapers matter? What if some of them vanish? Is our community truly essential to the cultural life of the Bay Area? Is there a difference between a vital organization and the vitality of the general scene? Or are we in need of some loss, the cultural equivalent of a controlled burn?

The fittingly downsized format of this recession-time Salon (fewer participants, smaller room, snacks for purchase from the Exit Cafe bar rather than a buffet/sit-down meal catered by the organizers) meant that the discussion was more focused than usual. We didn't end up digging as deeply as I would have liked -- to do this would require more regular meetings with similar participants showing up every time, I think. But we covered quite a lot of ground from a breath perspective. I was especially impressed with peoples' openness, strong sense of engagement and willingness to say what they felt without worrying about tarnished egos.

What was interesting in particular was the passion with which participants approached the topic of The Magic Theatre. With the exception of a few dissenting voices, nearly everyone in the room had said that they hadn't seen anything at the flagship new play theatre in around a decade that they thought was any good. Yet despite the negative attitudes surrounding the theatre's artistic output, most Salonites believed that the disappearance of the Magic -- if it were to go under for good as threatened a couple of months ago -- would be extremely detrimental to the local ecosystem in terms of such things as lost jobs and even fewer mid-sized houses.

This attitude extended to feelings about other local arts bastions such as ACT and the Datebook section of the beleaguered San Francisco Chronicle. Somehow, there's a deep attachment to these institutions, despite questions surrounding the strength of the services they provide.