Enter Stage Left

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. T

he 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 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 more supposedly controversial pieces, according to Donovan.

“The intention was to extend more opportunities to women, to dive into work that was more challenging,” said Donovan. “It was more about; how do we honor those that worked hard and had a hard time finding work?”

Nonprofits and community groups, according to Donovan, are the basis for the fringe community that is “a stronghold for exploring more difficult topics,” discussions of gender and sexuality, of racism and the like. A

s for student theater, the aim of the CFA in the past years has been to do the same.

“Flexibility is one of our strongest assets in CFA,” said Donovan. “Our student body being diversified has changed the conversation. We’ve mostly figured out how to have these conversations and reflect the diversity through our work.”

Without accessible venues, these goals are lofty.

Aside from the Huntington/Boston University Theater, BU also unveiled its newest venue at the Joan and Edgar Booth Theater in West Campus at 820 Commonwealth Avenue in December.

The space has a roughly-estimated seating capacity of 250, along with other spaces to accommodate costume and prop development. This configuration, according to the assessment, is ideal for expanding opportunities for the fringe community.

But just building the spaces, presenting halls and studios of chrome and new upholstery, is not enough. It’s one thing to claim to support the arts and find the latest and greatest equipment presented in a red bow. The survey says that what performance companies and theaters need, on the part of arts commissions and city and state governments, is consistent funding.

According to the Boston Globe, the Facilities Assessment Report suggests “developing funding mechanisms that aggregate and focus existing and potential new sources of support … [to] provide ongoing support, increasing access to spaces and helping to maintain them.”

“[The Booth Theater] has been a dream,” said Donovan. “It’s an incredible investment on the part of the university.”

Funding from government agencies and university programs inspires performers and management to continue the work they do. Without this funding, community-run and student-run programs cannot fully take theater and art into realms of discussion and controversy.

And they do this all, they hope, for the greater good for society.

“The work has to be more engaging, making the audience feel invited to the party,” said Donovan. “If there’s any time to be an artist, it’s now.”

By Megan Mulligan | Photography by Lauren Fogelström | Design by Eugene Kim