Theater outlasted the Greeks and the Romans.
It is one of the most consistent forms of public entertainment, putting social issues quite literally on center stage. Today, performance halls and theater spaces are still seeking an update into the new millennium. The majority of Boston’s theaters are largescale, grandiose, hallowed spaces with history. Operas have been held there since the time of Founding Fathers and using these spaces today requires ties to well-funded stage companies and rich supporters. A lack of accommodating and affordable smaller spaces are much more than an inconvenience for community-based performers who feel their productions are a conducive space for political discussion in these turbulent times. The Performing Arts Facilities Assessment Plan, a survey conducted by the Boston Planning and Development Agency, found that
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of the 190 major performance spaces in Boston, most cater to either large or small audiences, with little room in-between. Of these spaces, the report claims, most sit available for use but are generally unaffordable or inaccessible for smaller, community-based groups that want to use them. According to the Boston Globe, the Agency concludes is that there is both “excess supply and unmet demand” in Boston’s performing spaces. This claims that, somehow simultaneously, there are so many spaces and so many aspiring performances and performers, but the two don’t coincide. The agency writes that “economic realities for both space users and space providers prevent them from finding a pricing ‘sweet spot’ as well as significant and ongoing additional support to run, maintain and update facilities.”
Basic maintenance costs rise quickly, from paying electricity bills to up-keeping a full staff, including prop designers and the lead actress. It just isn’t realistic. Boston’s ‘fringe’ theater community has felt the changes. This subcommunity of unionized, professional performers and staff utilizes smaller spaces to perform, but they start conversations that in larger, corporate spaces would be otherwise stifled. McCaela Donovan, Assistant Director of the School of Theater at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, is also a founding member of the Bridge Repertory Theater, a nonprofit performance group based in East Cambridge. The theater seeks to provide acting opportunities and equitable pay to more marginalized groups like women and people of color. The Theater’s status as a nonprofit and company-in-residence allows it to take on
