See also
- Community theatre
- List of LORT Member Theatres
- Regional Theatre Tony Award
- Broadway theatre - for the other main category of American theatre
A regional theater, or resident theater, in the United States is a professional or semi-professional theater company that produces its own seasons. The term regional theater most often refers to a professional theater outside New York City. A regional theater may be a non-profit, commercial, union, or non-union house.
Regional theaters often produce new plays and challenging works that do not necessarily have the commercial appeal required of a Broadway production. Companies often round out their seasons with selections from classic dramas, popular comedies, and musicals. Some regional theaters have a loyal and predictable base of audience members, which can give the company latitude to experiment with a range of unknown or "non-commercial" works. In 2003, Time magazine praised regional theaters in general, and some top theaters in particular, for their enrichment of the theater culture in the United States. [1] Some regional theaters serve as the "out-of-town tryout" for Broadway-bound shows, and some will even accept touring Broadway shows.
The types of plays which are staged at regional theaters vary dramatically. While some are devoted to the classics, others only produce new work, or American work, or something else entirely.
Many regional theaters operate at least two stages: a main stage for shows requiring larger sets or cast, and one or more other stages (often studio theaters or black box theaters) for smaller, more experimental or avant-garde productions. In addition to box-office revenue, regional theaters rely on donations from patrons and businesses, season ticket subscriptions, and grants from foundations and government. Some have criticized regional theaters for being conservative in their selection of shows to accommodate the demographics of their subscribers and donors. [2] However, regional theaters are often much more experimental than commercial theaters are.
Theaters that develop new work, like the Alley Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, McCarter Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, often work to move their productions to Broadway venues in New York. They may also educate young audiences through educational outreach programs. Cooperative programs with nearby university theater programs are also common at regional theaters. For example, the Asolo Repertory Theatre is a member of LORT and partners with Florida State University in operating the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training.
The two major organizations that help to maintain the general welfare of resident theater in the United States are the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and the Theatre Communications Group (TCG). These organizations encourage communication and good relations between their members and in the community, as well as promoting a larger public interest and support of regional theater.
There are currently 74 LORT theaters located in 29 states and the District of Columbia. [3] LORT acts on behalf of its members in matters pertaining, but not limited to; collective bargaining with unions such as Actors’ Equity Association, United Scenic Artists, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, representation before government agencies on problems of labor relations, and the handling of disputes between members and their employees or union representatives. [4] [5]
Similar in purpose is the Theatre Communications Group. TCG’s mission is to “increase the organizational efficiency of our member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field, and promote a larger public understanding of and appreciation for the theatre.” TCG’s constituency has grown to encompass more than 700 [6] members throughout the United States. TCG also publishes the American Theatre Magazine, the ARTSEARCH online employment bulletin, and dramatic literature. [7]
In recognition of the importance of regional theaters in America, the American Theatre Wing gives a Regional Theatre Tony Award to one regional theater each year during the Tony Awards. This recipient is selected based on a recommendation by the American Theatre Critics Association and receives an award grant of $25,000. [8]
In the second and third decades of the twentieth century, there was a push to get away from the conservative, mainstream ideology of Broadway. [9] The Little Theatre Movement was a precursor of the Regional Theater Movement; it was started by theater artists who were concerned that not enough emphasis was being put on experimentation and social issues through the dramatic arts. The belief that theater should be about artistry and not about commerce drove this movement out of New York City. Almost every major city now has a regional theater. The movement altered the face of the American stage and allowed room for new works and new audiences. [10]
When the first national organization of nonprofit theaters was formed in 1961, there were only 23 regional theaters in the U.S. By 2003, the number of regional theaters had grown to 1,800. [1]
As non-profits, they rely heavily on donations from patrons, and some theaters have been accused of "pandering to the audience," subordinating their artistic ideals in order to please audiences and receive donations. [11] However, nonprofit theaters are under substantially less pressure than commercial theaters. In major markets like New York and Chicago this issue is much less prevalent, as there are dozens of small semi-professional theaters that produce new and experimental work without needing to sell many tickets, as they do not pay most of their artists.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to theatre:
The League of Resident Theatres (LORT) is the largest professional theater association of its kind in the United States, with 75 member theaters located in every major market in the U.S., including 29 states and the District of Columbia. LORT members collectively issue more Equity contracts to actors than Broadway and commercial tours combined.
Broadway theatre, or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world.
Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of an anti-commercial and experimental or avant-garde movement of drama and theatre. Over time, some off-off-Broadway productions have moved away from the movement's early experimental spirit.
Eric Coble is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is a member of the Playwrights' Unit of the Cleveland Play House.
The Provincetown Players was a collective of artists, writers, intellectuals, and amateur theater enthusiasts. Under the leadership of the husband and wife team of George Cram “Jig” Cook and Susan Glaspell from Iowa, the Players produced two seasons in Provincetown, Massachusetts and six seasons in New York City, between 1916 and 1922. The company's founding has been called "the most important innovative moment in American theatre." Its productions helped launch the careers of Eugene O'Neill and Susan Glaspell, and ushered American theatre into the Modern era.
Trinity Repertory Company is a non-profit regional theater located at 201 Washington Street in Providence, Rhode Island. The theater is a member of the League of Resident Theatres. Founded in 1963, the theater is "one of the most respected regional theatres in the country". Featuring the last longstanding Resident Acting Company in the U.S., Trinity Rep presents a balance of world premiere, contemporary, and classic works, including an annual production of A Christmas Carol, for an estimated annual audience of 110,000. In its 52-year history, the theater has produced nearly 67 world premieres, mounted national and international tours and, through its MFA program, trained hundreds of new actors and directors. Project Discovery, Trinity Rep's pioneering educational outreach program launched in 1966, annually introduces over 15,000 Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut high school students to live theater through matinees as well as in-school residencies and workshops. As of 2016, Trinity Rep's educational programs serve students in around 60% of Rhode Island schools, its executive director is Tom Parrish, and it has a 9 million USD annual budget.
Arizona Theatre Company is a non-profit, professional regional theatre company operating in both Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. It performs a season of six productions at two theatres—the only League of Resident Theatres member to do so—at the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson and the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix.
Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is a non-profit service organization headquartered in New York City that promotes professional non-profit theatre in the United States.
As the new medium of cinema was beginning to replace theatre as a source of large-scale spectacle, the Little Theatre Movement developed in the United States around 1912. The Little Theatre Movement served to provide experimental centers for the dramatic arts, free from the standard production mechanisms used in prominent commercial theatres. In several large cities, beginning with Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and Detroit, companies formed to produce more intimate, non-commercial, non-profit-centered, and reform-minded entertainments.
Portland Stage is a professional LORT theater company in the state of Maine. Founded as the Profile Theatre in 1974 as a touring theater company, in 1976 the company made Portland a permanent home and in 1982 it moved to its current home of 25A Forest Ave Portland, ME. Anita Stewart has served as the Artistic Director since 1996 and in 2006 was made Executive Director as well.
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is a Tony Award-winning non-profit, professional theatre company based in Palo Alto, California, founded in July, 1970. The company is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and employs some 300 artists annually, including Equity and non-Equity actors, directors, designers and specialty artists. The company stages a year-round season of eight productions - comedies, dramas, and musicals - in the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and in the California Mission-style Lucie Stern Theatre complex in Palo Alto.
ACT Theatre is a regional, non-profit theatre organization in Seattle, in the US state of Washington. Gregory A. Falls (1922–1997) founded ACT in 1965 and served as its first Artistic director; at the time ACT was founded he was also head of the Drama Department at the University of Washington. Falls was identified with the theatrical avant garde of the time, and founded ACT because he saw the Seattle Repertory Theatre as too specifically devoted to classics.
Florida Studio Theatre (FST) is a professional, non-profit theater company located in Sarasota, Florida and represents one of the major cultural institutions in the Gulf Coast region. Founded in 1973 as a touring troupe, FST is currently a regional theatre specializing in contemporary work and a member theatre of LORT. According to the Theatre Communications Group, it is the third largest subscription theatre in the country. Each year, more than 225,000 attendees are served by the theatre's diverse programs including the Mainstage Series, Cabaret Series, Stage III, Children's Theatre, The FST School, New Play Development, and FST Improv.
David J. Fishelson is an American producer, playwright, and director for film, theatre, television and radio, based in Manhattan since 1982. He is best known for being the lead producer of Golda's Balcony, the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history (2003–05)—which he also produced as a feature motion picture, Golda's Balcony , that was popular in over 75 film festivals in 2019-20)—as well as being the founder/producer of Manhattan Ensemble Theatre, an award-winning Off-Broadway theatre company located in SoHo, New York City. As a filmmaker, his work has been broadcast on PBS, exhibited theatrically, and selected for 87 international film festivals. As a theatre producer and playwright, his work has garnered 31 nominations from the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Obie, Drama League, Lortel, Blackburn Prize and Touring Broadway awards organizations, while landing on Time Out NY's year-end "Best in Theatre" list on 4 different occasions.
Lisa Portes is a director, educator, and advocate. She heads of the MFA Directing program at The Theatre School at DePaul University. She serves on the board of the Theatre Communications Group, the Executive Board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and is a founding member of the Latinx Theater Commons.
Christopher Nigel Jones is a British-American journalist and academic. He is the chief theater critic and Sunday culture columnist of the Chicago Tribune. Since 2014, he has also served as director of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Critics Institute. Jones appears live on the news broadcast of CBS-2 Chicago as a weekly theater critic. In 2018, he was additionally named Broadway theater critic for the Tribune related publication, the New York Daily News.
Larissa FastHorse is a Native American playwright and choreographer based in Santa Monica, California. FastHorse grew up in South Dakota, where she began her career as a ballet dancer and choreographer but was forced into an early retirement after ten years of dancing due to an injury. Returning to an early interest in writing, she became involved in Native American drama, especially the Native American film community. Later she began writing and directing her own plays, several of which are published through Samuel French and Dramatic Publishing. With playwright and performer Ty Defoe, FastHorse co-founded Indigenous Direction, a "consulting firm that helps organizations and individuals who want to create accurate work by, for and with Indigenous peoples." Indigenous Direction's clients include the Guthrie Theater. FastHorse is a past vice chair of the Theatre Communications Group, a service organization for professional non-profit American theatre.
Todd London is the Head of the MFA Playwriting Program at the New School School of Drama and the Director of Theatre Relations for the Dramatists Guild of America.
Miami New Drama is a nonprofit professional theater company located in Miami Beach, Florida, founded in 2014. Since October 2016 it has been the resident theater company and operator of the historic Colony Theatre on Miami Beach. Since its first production in January 2016, the company has produced work by American, Latin American, and international theater artists.