Is theater dead or is it dying?

Answer 1

I don't think it's possible for theatre to ever die, even if professional theatre struggles to survive you'll still have theatre wherever someone is telling a story.

And as far as the stagehands debate... I'm on their side. You'd want to be paid overtime and be well compensated if you worked 16 hour days and those hours consisted of manual labor, not some cushy desk job.

Answer 2

Working lighting, scenery, the flys, special effects is a difficult undertaking; then there are costumes, the seamstresses, the makeup and hair teams, choreography/movement, the fight coaches, the dialogue coaches. I've been Stage Manager, acted, etc. My most recent production, Dracula, had 138 cues which included lighting, special effects, flys, mechanical elevated platforms, sound. So, back to your question: theater will collapse unless people attend live productions. Technical crew need a living wage. Read your program the next time you attend a live production, count the people who've been behind the scenes. And don't forget it's the script which gives the actor work to do at the end of the day. The writer is THE most important factor in the theater/telly/film. Support live theater. Sorry to bang the drum, but I feel strongly about giving people a workable wage for effort and long and sometimes unsociable hours. Theater is still very much a workable proposition, otherwise we'd not be hearing any moaning about the current strike in NYC.

Answer 3

No, The theatre is known as The Fabulous Invalid because it always seems to be dying, but it comes back. The current stagehands strike is caused by the fact that the stagehands want to be paid for doing nothing in many cases, and the producers are tired of that. The stagehands are the primary reason why ticket prices are so high. The theatre is an important part of human culture and will always exisit in one form or another.