8. Making Money vs. Making Art

Lessons of the 'Troupe 1931' Theater Ensemble

The original author of these essays was German actress Ingeborg Franke von Wangenheim.

No theater can depend upon its ticket sales to stay in business. Even during good times, German theater has been utterly dependent upon subsidies from the crown, its favored private patrons, or the states. Even with continuously packed houses, any theater lacking “outside” backers is doomed to collapse.

For years, we’ve been witnessing the de-capitalization and destruction of the theater-going middle class, all of us becoming poorer, all of us ever more “proletarianized.” Even as our theater companies struggled to keep things going, we understood how and why they — and we ourselves — were losing out.