Levine, Stephen

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Bridgewater ReviewVolume 19 | Issue 2 Article 5Dec-2000South Shore Theater: Myth and RealityStephen LevineBridgewater State College, slevine@bridgew.eduThis item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts.Recommended CitationLevine, Stephen (2000). South Shore Theater: Myth and Reality. Bridgewater Review, 19(2), 3-5.Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol19/iss2/5SOUTH SHORETHEATER: MYTHAND REALITYBY STEPHEN LEVINEYTH #1: Sports viewing and activity are overwhelminglythe peoples' entertainment, and the arts and culture are onlyfor the few and the elite.MYTH #2: Massachusetts south ofBoston is a culturalwasteland in which there is no measurable theater activity.MYTH #3: Communities depend on real jobs with realeconomic impact such as those in construction and theinformation industry. Everyone knows there are no impor-tantjobs in theater and that theater has no real economicimpact on the region.Those three statements have the power ofpopular wis-dom, and they seem to be louder than any voices that mightcontraclict them. Despite popular wisdom, the facts say thateach of the above statements is a myth. The reality behind thefirst myth is that in New York the Metropolitan Museum ofArt has greater annual attendance than the Yankees, Knicks,and Rangers combined. The three top cultural institutions inBoston have greater attendance than the Red Sox, Bruins, andCeltics combined. The reality behind the second myth is thatthere are more professional theaters, community theaters,schools of theater, college, public and private school theatersproducing more plays on the South Shore and Cape Codthan there are in Boston. My work leads me to estin1atethat total participation and audience attendance exceeded300,000 people last year! I also estimate that the total effect indollars on the regional economy exceeded $20,000,000 lastyear. (The exact numbers are still being calculated as part ofmy study to be completed December, 2000.) The realitybehind the third myth is that in the United States employ-ment in the arts is greater than in many essential fields. Forexample, in 1997, the arts accounted for 6% of the GrossBRIDGEWATER REVIEWNational Product (the construction industry accounted for4.8%) and the arts employed 2.7% of the Arnerican work-force, or 3.2 million individuals (agriculture employed2.6%). In New England, job growth in the arts and cultureworld exceeded every other field last year; and south ofBoston, I estimate that employment in theater included over170 full-time jobs and over 1200 seasonal or part-time jobs.By comparison, the region's vaunted cranberry industrylikely has less than one tenth that amount ofemployment.It is important to understand that at the root of this issue isaccess to public money. Our taxes are invested in a wide rangeof activities in the Commonwealth, and decisions about howthey will be spent are fought out in the state house and thecourt of public opinion. Take, for example, the campaignthis summer by the Boston Red Sox to convince legislators,the governor and the public that the region would be wiseto spend huge an10unts of public money ($312 million wasthe most recent estimate I read in the Boston Globe) to helpbuild a new Fenway Park and the infrastructure such as roadsand parking, on which it would depend. To bolster theirargument that the region would benefit, Red Sox executivespointed to the importance of the Red Sox in making Bostona "world class city': and to the economic benefits of havinga major league team that draws two million fans a year andsells lots of hot dogs and ball caps. So, people make bothcultural and economic arguments to support their right toclip into the public treasury for the special activity in whichthey believe.I want to smash myths about theater and the arts becauseI want more support, especially public support, for theater inour region. The problem is that the myths are so pervasivethat they stand in the way. The reality has been obscure andunrecognized, like the reality ofan underground economythat secretly adds up to a $20,000,000 effect. Consider the3~OBIN ~OOD ANDJHffAID ~ARIAN1\ muSt r;=====Th=e=:A=w=a~rd=':-w:::i=nn=:=in=:!I.====Jl'i.v' 'if -MARy ORA COMPANY THEATREn 3 PresentscTheDreamGoesOn ...SUMMER 2000following examples that may be news to you.There is a little, funky professional theaternamed Wellfleet Harbor Actor's Theater,with Jeff Zinn as resident director and GipHoppe as resident playwright, which has sentplays on to Boston and Off-Broadway in NewYork. Did you know that? There is a well-attended private school of theater over theold appliance store in East Bridgewater,headed by Teresa Capacione. There is anenormous theater program (winning morestate titles than the football team) atBrockton High School, under the directionof Carol Thomas. There is a large, adventur-ous community group named Company Theater, directed byZoe Bradford and Jody Saucerman who saved a former pro-fessional theater in Norwell. There is even a nationally hon-ored theater program at Bridgewater State College. Did youknow that? (A more complete listing of theater groups,including professional, amateur and education-affiliatedgroups are listed on page 5.) The facts will show that all of thetheaters in the region add more to their communities thanthey receive, much more than popular wisdom has allowed.I want you to know that all of the theaters add much morethan they receive economically as well as culturally.Old arguments touting the artistic and educational valueof the arts (and particularly of theater) in the cities andtowns south ofBoston have simply not produced sufficientattention and support. Though I strongly agree with sucharguments, and made them myself in the past, they are notbeing repeated here because they sinlply have not been effec-tive. As a society we seem to measure everything in terms ofmoney, but the dollar argument for theater in the region hasBRIDGEWATER REVIEWnot yet been made loudly enough to overcome the mythsconnected with it. I hope to counter the myths about theaterwith concrete data demonstrating the scope of the economicimpact of all the theater on the South Shore and Cape Cod.I hope to let the factual reality of dollars argue for theaterlouder than the artistic and educational values have everdone. Can you hear it?There have been studies measuring such things as theeconomic inlpact of a new Fenway Park for the Red Sox, thecranberry crop, Canadian whiskey, crime in Massachusettsand building the Big Dig in Boston. Economic impact studieshave been conducted whenever public funds are to be spenton an activity in our society. The term, "economic inlpact:'means measuring the influence of an activity by examiningall of the ramifications that activity has on the dollar val ue ofemployment, property costs, goods and services produced,income and expenditures, as well as other business generatedin a specific population. And "gross national product" is usedas a measure ofall the economic activity in the United States.It does not measure the spiritual or artistic worth of an activ-ity except as each generates dollars spent.In my study I am searching for a kind of"regional theaterproduct" composed of all the economic activity related totlleater. That is, I am trying to calculate how much money isspent in each ofour communities that would not have beenspent without its theater activities. One very importantaspect of that measurement has already been widely acceptedby economists: a basic formula (often called an economicmodel) for calculating business generated. As a general rule itcan be assumed that every dollar spent directly producingand attending theater in the region creates three dollarsworth of other business. This three-to-one ratio takes intoaccount the ripple effect of increases of property costs,employment, goods and services produced, income andexpenditures for businesses that benefit indirectly from the-ater activity. Every dollar directly spent producing a play alsomeans another three dollars spent in the community byactors and audience on restaurants, gas stations, clothingstores, local/state taxes, and so on. Every dollar directly spentproducing a play also means another three dollars spent inthe community on increased employment, inventory diversi-fication, capital improvements, depreciation, and so on byaccountants, lumber yards, fabric stores, lighting manufac-turers, installers and renters, and others. When I estimatedthat tlle total effect of theater activity in the region exceededtwenty million dollars I used the standard ratio of three toone to calculate that figure.There is yet another aspect of the regional theater productthat is much more difficult to measure: donated goods andservices. These are called in-kind contributions, and must becounted along with other contributed income from sourcessuch as corporations, foundations, individuals, as well asfederal, state and local grants. In-kind contributions repre-sent more dollar value by any measure of theater than all ofthe dollar contributions combined. My estimation that tllenumber ofparticipants and audience in theater in the region4exceeds three hundred thousand includes its approximatelyseven thousand volunteer participants. Ofcourse, manyof the volunteers, employees and audience members mayhave attended and been counted more than once (just as theRed Sox or any other business includes many individualswho attend and are counted more the once). In fact, myestimate that the total economic effect of theater in the regionexceeds twenty million dollars could increase significantly.I have not accounted for any in-kind contributions in myestimate, simply because it is taking much longer than Ianticipated to calculate the fair dollar value of used goodsand volunteer services.Until recently, my personal interest in theater has beenexclusively artistic and educational. This economic inlpactstudy is something I had always hoped that someone else.would do, but in my 32 years in southeastern Massachusetts,no one has. I finally realized tllat if it is needed enough, I'dbetter do it. Other studies have been done, nationally and inNew England, but their primary focus has been not-for-profit incorporated arts and cultural organizations in majorurban centers. Research in Massachusetts, for example,included only not-for-profit corporations in Boston. Thestudies excluded for-profit and unincorporated arts organi-zations as well as all organizations outside of Boston. Becausemost theater production outside of Boston is for-profit orunincorporated, there is a significant gap in the research ontlle economic impact of theater in Massachusetts. Conse-quently, two unique aspects of this study are: first, the inclu-sion of data collected from all organizations engaged intlleater; and second, tlle limitation to a geographic area out-side a major urban center, in this case southeastern Massa-chusetts. Ifyou measure the value ofyour community inmoney, then you should hear this loud and clear: we need tosupport our local theater.Stephen Levine is Professor ofCommunications Studies andTheatre Arts.Editor's note: Dr. Stephen Levine ofthe Department ofCommunication Studies and Theater Arts is in the midstofastudy of "The Economic Impact ofTheater production inSoutheastern Massachusetts." During his sabbatical leave inthe spring semester and summer of1999 he began collectingdata for his study and is currently working toward completionofthe project.Professional theater groups,professional touring theatergroups, community theatergroups, amateur touringtheater groups and theatergroups in public and privateeducational institutionsAbingtonAcushnetAttleboro (Attleboro CommunityTheater)AvonBarnstableBerkleyBourne (Theater on the Bay)Braintree (Braintree Curtain)Brewster (Cape Repertory)Bridgewater (Bridgewater StateCollege)Brockton (Massasoit CommunityCollege)Buzzard's BayCantonCarver (King Richard's Faire)CedarvilleChatham (Chatham DramaGuild)Cohasset (Cohasset DramaticClub; South Shore MusicCircus)Cotuit (Cotuit Center for Arts)Dartmouth (UMASS-Dartmouth)Dennis (Cape Playhouse)DightonDuxbury (Duxbury Bay Players)E. BridgewaterEasthamEaston (Maplewood Day Camp;Stonehill College)Fairhaven (Bijou)Fall River (Bristol CommunityCollege Seton Academy;Metropolitan Players; FallRiver Little Theater)Falmouth (Highfield Theater;Cape Cod Theatre Project;College Light Opera Company.Cape Cod Conservatory)Foxborough (Orpheum Theater)HalifaxHanoverHansonHarwich (Harwich JuniorTheater)Hingham (Hingham Civic MusicTheatre; Hingham Cabaret)HolbrookHull (Hull Performing Arts)Hyannis (Cape Cod CommunityCollege; Hyannis Melody Tent)KingstonLakevilleMansfield (Great WoodslTweeterCenter)Marion (Marion Arts Center)Marshfield (Family PerformingArts Center)Mashpee (Oversoul Theater,Talking Drum; Boch Center ForThe Performing Arts)Mattapoisett (Old RochesterSummer Adventures inLearning; Old Rochester)Middleborough (Black and WhiteTheater; Nemasket RiverProductions; BertwoodSchool of Performing ArtsLorna School of Perf. Arts)New Bedford (Zeiterion ;YourTheater; GalieryX; FestivalTheater of New Bedford)North AttleboroughNorton (Wheaton College;Norton Singers-WheatonCollege; Charminade Singers-Wheaton College)Norwell Company TheaterOnsetOrleans (Academy forPerforming Arts)PembrokePlymouth (Priscilla BeachTheater; Acting Workshop;Plymouth Plantation; LAFProductions; PlymouthLibrary)PlymptonPocassetProvincetown (TheaterCompany; ProvincetownRepertory Theater;Provincetown PlayhouseQuincy (Quincy Dinner Theater;Children's Theatre Workshop;JM Productions; Rafael's JimBright)RandolphRehobothRocklandSagamoreSandwich (Glasstown Players)ScituateSeekonkSharon (Student Dinner Theatre)SomersetStoughton (Little Theatre ofStoughton)SwanseaTaunton Star Players; IndustrialTheaterTruro (Provincetown Playhouse;Payomet Players)WarehamWellfleet Harbor Actors TheaterWest BridgewaterWestport (Lewis School ofTheatre Arts; TheatreCompany)WeymouthWhitmanWoods Hole Theater CompanyYarmouthBRIDGEWATER REVIEW 5

South Shore Theater: Myth and Reality

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South Shore Theater: Myth and Reality

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