Baumol and Theater Experience
Theater… I was reading Thomas Schmidts book on Theatre Management (in German - link) and in the first chapter there was an interesting idea that got me thinking - “Baumols’ Dillema”.
Baumol was an American Economist who coined “Baumols cost disease” (wikipedia) stating that because it takes the same number of musicians to produce a string quartet now as it did 200 years ago, there is no increase in productivity whereas wages have increased due to many factors, meaning the cost of production is higher now to produce the same quantity. This handily ignores quality and many other things such as inflation that affects the real value of wages, but it does ring true and not only for musicians but the whole arts sector in general.
I find the concept fascinating. It is a value question as to what the value of theatre and art is. The desire to be a business and to follow such concepts tend to be where where theatres get degraded. There is a natural focus (often out of necessity) to try to squeeze every last drop out of the employees, do more (productions, performance) with less (people, resources) and all for what is relative to minimum wage (at least for the qualifications and skills that the people bring).
Theatre, like education and public health services, are a social service provided by the government in Germany and though I am open to be persuaded otherwise, really this needs to be recognised for what it is, rather than pressured to be something else. Theatre is a social cultural service that is for the good of the quality of life in the city, rather than a money making enterprise. Sure, it needs to develop, grow and change to stay relevant with changes in society, but I believe that its place is even more important now than at any time in the last 50 years. And perhaps it is only becoming more important in this digital depersonalised age.
In the changes that we are rapidly moving through, digitalisation being the latest (though previously film and television took their toll), the focus on what makes theatre important should not be lost. My opinion, apart from being a great place for the creative arts to be seen, culturally developed, preserved and questions of society to be asked, is that today, a live experience is more important than ever. People can sit at home and watch whatever television show or film from their comfort of their own couch they desire, but to be there in a concert or performance is a whole other level. It is the live experience that makes a theatre so special due to its mode of delivery.
Live experience is something that a television can never deliver in the same way. It’s about being there and being able to use all one’s senses. To feel experientially with ones whole being. To connect with a moment that will never be able to be repeated. It’s the energy of being taken on an adventure where voices, movement and music is all created in the moment. Using all our senses, we sense what is going on, the non-verbal as important as the verbal, the distance to the performer, the interaction with an audience energetically and its exchange. These things are never replicable on the screen or on a CD. There is the beauty that two performances will never be the same, that this is a unique moment. And in my opinion it is this quality of experience that is what is so valuable. Artistic expression is important, art being created too, but they all feed back into the experience being created. Think things like personality, how a great performer holds his/her audience captive, direction, how genius ideas are presented in unexpected ways, sowing storylines together to take turns that push and pull the emotions of an audience member in every way. These are the experiences that I go to the theatre to see and be a part of. Especially when I can experience them live and in person the experience is 10x more powerful and enriching. They are the things that will always bring me back!
The value of theatre in many ways is immense. Perhaps there is need for greater awareness as to what makes it so unique. Its cost is actually very small in comparison to the value it provides society (in many other ways than are described here).
There is more to these thoughts, that I will expand on in posts to come.