you, your org, and/or your industry?"
Dave Russell
Artistic Director/Managing Director
SAK Comedy Lab
I think the actual outcome, effect and fallout is unclear to us, and at this point we can only speculate. The actions being taken by our government are happening so fast and are of such massive proportion it seems likely there will be unforeseen consequences and I will not be at all surprised to discover that unscrupulous individuals or groups conspired to capitalize on the “too quick to manage efficiently redistribution of a large amount of money” opportunity. In fact, the reason for this kind of response to the current crisis is in large part due to greedy, selfish and short-sighted decisions. Under these circumstances, it is undeniable that we will be dealing with consequences and repercussions of these actions and reactions for a long time.
As I am writing this (Monday, Sept 29, 2008), I see that the US Congress has voted down the economic rescue package. So it is at this time impossible to tell even what the response plan is going to be.
As far as our future as a theater business, economic troubles such as this are always bad for theater and the arts. The only foreseeable potential positive we can even consider at this point is that we are in the business of comedy and with all the turmoil going on, people want to and need to laugh. In addition, our ticket price remains extremely accessible – slightly more than the price of a movie, so for people with increasingly more limited disposable income, it may be an opportunity to enjoy affordable entertainment. If people get scared enough and turn inward, horde cash and refuse to spend on anything but the necessities, we, as will all our theatrical and arts industry brethren will be in deep trouble.
Bottom line is this financial and economic crisis we are in may well be a natural market correction as a consequence of the kinds of decisions we have made both individually and corporately over the past 5 to 10 years. Maybe we should let the chips fall where they may, and begin the process of rebuilding, hopefully learning positive lessons from our previous mistakes. Luckily, human-kind is extremely resilient and luckily humans at some spiritual core seem to need and appreciate the emotions they experience through the arts and artistic expression. We’ll be fine but it’s going to be scary for a little while.