[URBAN NOTE] On the open letter of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre's Brendan Healy

[rfmcdonald]

Torontoist's Carly Maga introduced readers to an open letter from Buddies in Bad Times' artistic director Brendan Healy asking why so few people have been to see the latest play by Daniel MacIvor, the generally well-reviewed Arigato, Tokyo.

I can't offer insight into any trends. The plays I've been to see--including plays I've paid for, including, late in 2011, Buddies in Bad Times's excellent production of Larry Kramer's The Lonely Heart--have generally had packed audiences. Is it, as commenters at Torontoist suggest, just a matter of changing theatrical tastes?

It’s no secret that many of Toronto’s theatre companies have seen the numbers of paying customers coming through their doors shrink over the last few years. Companies have had to adjust in response—a process known euphemistically as “right-sizing.” But when the artistic director of one of Toronto’s most iconic companies—which Buddies In Bad Times, “the largest facility-based queer theatre company in the world,” definitely is—has to write a letter to the citizens of Toronto (theatre-going or not) expressing his surprise at low attendance for a new play from one of Canada’s most acclaimed and accomplished playwrights (Daniel MacIvor’s Arigato, Tokyo, in this instance), there’s a problem. ADs are not usually ones to admit a show, especially one they’ve directed themselves, isn’t performing up to their expectations in the box office.

Healy is funny, open, and embarrassingly honest and humble when it comes to his leadership role at Buddies, so we suspect this letter doesn’t come out of anger or condescension (but take from it what you will). It doesn’t speculate on the causes of the low turnout. Instead, it asks readers to participate in a survey that Healy hopes will help the company understand what’s keeping people away.