a poor player

Dunkirk NY – I have been up this evening preparing a number of items for the upcoming retreat for the department that I have scheduled for Wednesday 8/18. In the afternoon I plan to lead an open discussion on the topic Theatre Education and Training for the 21st Century. It’s designed to be a kick-off for some long-range planning, getting the faculty to think about the theatre curriculum as a whole as we come to grips with the shifting theatrical realities around us.

One of the items I’ve prepared is something I loosely called “Theatre Facts Today.” Essentially it’s a big list of data culled from the various reports that have been released over the past five years or so. Once I had compiled it, it seems like quite an interesting list, and I could not think of a place where all these facts had been collected in one location. So I thought I would post my list here and on TACT and share them with you for your inspection and reflection. I am making no attempt at analyzing all this data for the moment. I’m just putting it out there in one big list.

Sidenote – I recently had a discussion with a member of the chemistry department who is interested in getting more participation from the arts departments on campus for her Earth Day events in April. During the conversation I happened to bring up the notion that I had been looking at the data as a means of assessing theatre curricula and reforming its approach to training artists. She looked at me and said, “You are the first artist I have ever heard speak of using data to assess a condition.” Maybe I am on to something .

The following is nothing more than a listing of some facts that represent what is happening in the real world of theatre and dance today. These facts are presented as a jumping-off point and context for our discussion “Theatre Training and Education in the 21^st Century.”

•Several National Studies

• 2008 NEA Survey of Public Participation in the Arts
• 2008 Artists in the Workforce 1990-2005 (NEA)
• TCG Theatre Facts 2008 and 2009
• AEA Theatrical Season Report 08-09
• 2010 NY Innovative Theatre Awards Survey of OOB Practitioners
• Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of the New American Playwright (2010)

Some Facts from those studies:

• •Median AEA member made $7,688 in 08-09
• •Average AEA weeks worked=15.2 (49.3% employed)
• •Only 14.4% of AEA members working in any one week
• •68% of OOB actors had either FT or PT work outside theatre
• •Playwrights make about $7,000/yr. on average from their plays

Some facts from the 2007 Survey of Theatre Grads SUNY Fredonia

1. When did you graduate?

Response Percent             Response Count

a. Before 1985                                     1.2%                                     1

b. 1985-90                                          10.6%                                     9

c. 1990-95                                          35.3%                                     30

d. 1995-2000                                     23.5%                                     20

e. after 2000                                     29.4%                                     25

Answered question 85

skipped question 0

2. What is your total estimated annual gross income for 2007 (include only the money you make. Do not include the income from any other member of your household. Include income from all sources.)?

Response Percent                         Response Count

a. below $20,000                                     23.5%                                     20

b. $20-35K                                                 21.2%                                     18

c. $35-50K                                                 24.7%                                     21

d. $50-75K                                                 16.5%                                     14

e. above $75K                                            14.1%                                     12

answered question 85

skipped question 0

3. Of the amount listed in Question 2, what percentage of it is income derived from employment in the general entertainment business (theatre, film, radio, television, voiceover, commercials, industrials, etc. DO NOT include income earned from teaching in any educational setting. You MAY include income earned as a guest artist in an educational setting.)?

Response Percent                  Response Count

a. none                                     30.6%                                                             26

b. 1-25%                                   23.5%                                                             20

c. 26-50%                                  9.4%                                                             8

d. 51-75%                                   1.2%                                                             1

e. 75-99%                                   4.7%                                                             4

f. 100%                                      30.6%                                                             26

Answered question 85

Skipped Question 0

4. Of the amount listed in Question 2, what percentage of it is income derived from employment in legitimate theatre ONLY (live performances of staged plays)?

Response Percent             Response Count

a. none                                       47.1%                                     40

b. 1-25%                                     18.8%                                     16

c. 26-50%                                     3.5%                                     3

d. 51-75%                                     0.0%                                     0

e. 75-99%                                     10.6%                                     9

f. 100%                                        20.0%                                     17

Answered question 85

Skipped Question 0

2010 OOB Survey of Theatre Practitioners (my analysis from an earlier post)

• You’re highly educated, female, and you’re white. 84% of all OOB actors have a college degree: 60% with a bachelors, 21% with a masters, 3% with a PhD. 77% are white. 5% are African-American, 4% Latino. 53% are female, 46% male.
• You’re young. 67% of all indie actors are between the ages of 21-40, a 19-year span. The highest age group is 26-30 year-olds at 24%. The average age is 36, the median is 33. There is an attrition rate of 50% from the 26-30 age group (24%) to the 36-40 age group (12%). All the percentages over 40 are in single digits. Only 20% of indie actors are between 40-55, a 15-year span.
• You’re single and childless. 51% of you are single, and 18% are living with a partner (not married). 92% of you have no children. I am assuming this 92% childlessness rate runs across all age groups.
• Your average income is between $30-50K annually. Your average annual salary is about $38, 209, which comes out to about $18.37/hour (as a reference, the contractor re-modeling my bathroom makes $35/hr). But you’re doing better that the median hourly wage of all actors in this country, which is $11.61 according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• Before you get too excited about that, though, realize that you’re probably living in Manhattan (54%), where according to the Real Estate of New York’s rent survey for January 2010, the lowest rent for a non-doorman studio apartment is in Harlem at $1,312/month. In addition, your money is not being made through the theatre work you do – only 8% of the actors in this survey made all their money through their theatre work. 40% had a full-time job outside of theatre, and 31% had part-time work, for a 71% rate of employment outside theatre. Also, most actors indicated that acting was not the only thing they did as a theatre practitioner. 25% of you also do administrator/producer work, and another 22% also identify as directors. The survey is not clear about how much of the income that the 8% who make all their money through the theatre actually make it through acting alone, without income from these other theatrical identities.
• 48% of you managed to get into AEA, 45% did not. Union workers made an average of $32,092 per year (again, not strictly in the theatre), while non-union actors made $30, 786. So for the privilege of being a union member, you made $1,306 extra, which probably went to paying your union dues. Don’t spend that all in one place.

TCG Theatre Facts 2009:

• While a majority of theatres operated in the black from 2005 to 2007, more than half had a negative bottom line in 2008 and 2009 and an increasing percentage of theatres experienced shortfalls greater than 20% of operating expenses over the past two years.
• The 5-year period ending 2009 finished in negative territory. Contributed income barely outpaced inflation but could not offset the erosion of earned income and the growth in expenses. 5-year earned income growth exclusive of investment income was 0.8% above inflation.
• Total earned income covered 44.4% of total expenses in 2009, a 16.7% decrease from 2005. The inflation-adjusted 23% decline in earned income over the past five years occurred in concert with expense growth that outpaced inflation.
• Average endowment earnings peaked in 2007, decreased significantly in 2008 and fell an additional 79.9% in 2009.
• The economic crisis created 5-year, inflation-adjusted declines in endowment earnings of 79.5%. This line item includes earned and transferred investment income from endowments (donor restricted) or quasi-endowments (board designated) that were established specifically to provide income. Endowment earnings supported 1.8% lower proportion of expenses in 2009 than in 2005.
• Despite belt-tightening in many areas in 2009, total expense growth outpaced inflation over the 5-year period by 9.7%—making the erosion of earned income detailed above an even greater concern. All expense categories experienced growth in excess of inflation from 2005 to 2009 with the exception of royalties and physical production expenses (i.e., lumber, steel, fabric, etc.).
• Total payroll increased 10.7% above inflation from 2005 to 2009 and accounted for half a percent more of theatres’ total expenses. The average number of paid employees peaked at 218 in 2006 and reached its lowest level of 204 in 2009. Job cuts affected full-time, part-time and jobbed-in employees. The number of full-time employees went from a high of 63 in 2005 to a low of 51 in 2009. Theatres employed on average five fewer fee-based or jobbed-in workers in 2009 compared to 2005.
• In 2005, artistic and administrative payroll accounted for 19.5% and 20.5% of theatres’ expenses, respectively—the largest areas of resource allocation (see Table 5). Since then, administrative payroll has held its ground as a proportion of expenses and its growth has outpaced inflation by 0.5%. Artistic payroll, on the other hand, now represents only 18.6% of total expenditures and its growth over the 5-year period fell short of inflation by 0.9%.
• Total attendance—including resident productions and tours—declined 5.7% to its lowest level in 2009 while the total number of performances remained fairly unchanged from 2005 to 2009. The attendance drops were annual while the number of performances offered fluctuated.
• The overall 3% increase in the number of resident performances was met with a 3.1% decrease in attendance.
• In 2009, more resident performances were offered yet attendance was lower than in other years.

Sixty-six theatres have participated in the TCG Fiscal Survey each year since 2000. Some key trends for this subset of larger theatres provide a longer-term perspective:

• Growth in subscription income fell short of inflation by 11%. Subscription renewals averaged 70% to 76% annually over the 10-year period, ending at 73% in 2009. Total subscription packages sold and total subscriber attendance, both of which were at a 10-year high in 2001 were at their lowest in 2009, with 26% and 16% declines, respectively, over the period.

• Total attendance (not including tours) fell 7% over the 10-year period.

• Overall, earned income growth fell short of inflation by 25%.

NEA 2008 Public Participation in the Arts

• Performed by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the 2008 SPPA collected arts participation data and other information from more than 18,000 adults (18 and above) across the United States.

• The percentage of adults going to classical music, non-musical theater, ballet and other dance performances continued to decline from levels in previous years.  Only musical plays saw no statistically significant change in participation from 2002 to 2008.

• Musicals drew 17 percent of all adults, and nonmusical plays drew 9 percent.

• Performing arts attenders are increasingly older than the average U.S. adult.

• From 2002 to 2008, 45-54-year-olds — historically a large component of arts audiences — showed the steepest declines in attendance for arts events including classical music concerts, ballet and theater performances, and art museum visits.

• As in prior years, more Americans listened to or watched recordings or broadcasts of performing arts events than attended them live. The sole exception is live theater, which still attracts higher percentages of adults than broadcasts or recordings of plays or musicals.

• In 2008, there were more attendances at musical plays — 83 million — than any other type of performing arts studied in the SPPA. Attendances for musical plays saw little change from 2002 to 2008, which was also true for the number of attendances at “other dance” performances. Attendance at all other types of performing arts events studied in both 2002 and 2008 had large declines in 2008. Attendance declined most for jazz and classical music concerts and non-musical plays.

US Adults attending a theatre or dance activity at least once in the last 12 months (1982/2008):

• Musical Plays: 18.6/16.7
• Non-musical Plays: 11.9/9.4
• Ballet: 4.2/2.9
• Other Dance: 7.1(1992)/5.2

US Adults Participating in theatre or dance:

Singing or acting in a musical play. About 2 million adults (0.9 percent of adults) sang or acted in a musical play in 2008. Because the 2002 SPPA question regarding participation in musical plays referred to “singing music from a musical play or operetta,” results from 2008 are not precisely comparable to those of previous years. People who sing or act in musical plays come from all age groups, with people 18 to 24 representing the greatest share (30%) of all musical play performers. About 63 percent of adults who participate are women. Participation of people with more formal education is slightly higher than adults with less education. Non Hispanic whites and African Americans have slightly higher rates of participation than other groups.

Acting in a non-musical play. About 1.8 million adults acted in at least one non-musical play in 2008. Participation in non-musical plays dropped from 1.4 percent of adults in 2002 to 0.8 percent of adults in 2008. More so than for other types of arts performance, acting cuts across gender, education, race and ethnicity, and income groups. Adults 18 to 24 are the most likely to act in a non-musical play. African Americans are more likely to act in a non-musical play than other groups.

Performing dance. According to the 2008 survey results, 4.8 million adults in the 2008 SPPA performed dance of some type at least once in the past 12 months. Although changes in survey questions make trend analysis in this area difficult, the 2.1 percent of adults involved in dance in 2008 appears to represent a decline from previous years — in 2002, 4.2 percent of adults said they participated in dance other than ballet, including modern, folk and tap. Participation in dance performances has been declining since at least 1992. More than two-thirds of adults participating in dance performances are women. Both young and older adults participate in dance — and the highest rates of participation are among people 18 to 24 and 65 to 74. People of higher education levels are somewhat more likely to participate in dance than adults with less education.

Artists in the Workforce 2000-2005 – May 2008 Report by the NEA

Artists are generally more educated than the workforce as a whole.

• Artists are twice as likely as the overall labor force to have graduated from college.

• The proportion of artists with degrees is rising—from 51 percent in 2000 to 55 percent in 2003-2005.

Fewer artists have full-year, full-time jobs than other workers.

• One-third of all artists work fewer than 50 weeks a year.

• 28 percent of artists work for less than 35 hours a week.

• Actors have the lowest level of full-year, full-time employment—15 percent.

Artists generally earn less than workers with similar levels of education.

• Artists earn $6,000 less annually than other “professional” workers.

• Dancers have the lowest median annual income—$15,000

Compared with the American labor force as a whole, artists are much more likely to be self-employed. Almost one-third of artists were self-employed in 2000, compared with less than 10 percent of the labor force. About half of fine artists and writers were self-employed, with photographers at 42 percent and musicians at 35 percent. This pattern of high self-employment was evident in the 1990 census data, but the 2003-2005 data indicate that the numbers of self-employed artists are increasing, with 35 percent of all artists self-employed, and each artist occupation showing more than 20 percent self-employed. Actors have the lowest level of full-year, full-time workers—only 17 percent. Between 20 and 30 percent of dancers, musicians, and entertainers work full time all year

In the U.S. labor force as a whole, 30 percent of all workers work fewer than 50 weeks a year. The percentage of part-year workers for all artists is slightly higher––33 percent. For many of the artist occupations, however, the percentage working less than a full year is much higher than for artists as a whole. Seventy-seven percent of actors work part-year, as do about one-half of dancers and entertainers, and 2 out of every 5 musicians. Full-time work is defined as 35 or more hours per week, a level that includes almost 80 percent of the U.S. labor force, and more than 80 percent of professionals. Seventy-eight percent or more of architects, designers, and producers work full-time hours, but other artists are more likely to work part-time. Only about half of actors, dancers, and entertainers, and 3 out of 5 musicians, work 35 or more hours per week.

The median income from all sources in 1999 was $30,000 for artists, higher than the $25,300 median for the total labor force, and lower than the $36,000 for all professionals. Dancers had the lowest median income – $15,000 – with actors, musicians, announcers, photographers, fine artists, and entertainers all at $25,000 or less. Architects had the highest median income at $48,000, followed by producers ($40,000), writers ($32,000), and designers ($30,000). The median income for artists in 2003-2005 was $34,800, or $29,700 when adjusted for inflation to represent 1999 dollars. Full-year, full-time artists earned $45,200 (unadjusted) while the median income for full-year, fulltime professionals was $52,500. Producers and writers who worked full time had incomes above $50,000, and the median income for full-year, full-time architects was higher, at $63,500. For the 45 percent of artists who did not work full time all year, however, the median income was $20,000. The 2003-2005 median income for all women artists was $27,300, or 65 percent of the $42,000 median income for all male artists.

Number of actors: 39,717

In the 2003-2005 time period, there were 39,717 actors, a mere 2 percent of all artists and a category that has shown little growth since 1990. Almost half of all actors live in California, mostly in Los Angeles. Another 20 percent live in New York, mostly in New York City. Twelve percent of actors are employed by not-for-profit organizations, a relatively high proportion when compared with other artists. Almost 40 percent are self-employed, and 47 percent work for private for-profit employers. Only 15 percent of actors work full time for the entire year. Almost 60 percent of actors have completed college—more than double the rate of the labor force as a whole—but their median income ($23,400) is below the $30,100 median for the total labor force. For the small group who do work full time all year, actors’ median income is still below the norm for the labor force. About half of all actors are under 35, and 12 percent are enrolled in college or graduate school. Twenty-three percent of actors are of minority racial or ethnic groups, a similar proportion to most other performing artists.

• 45.1% female
• 23.4% minority
• Median age: 35
• 49.9% under 35
• 58.6% with bachelor’s degree or higher
• 11.9% enrolled in school
• 15.1% full-year, full-time workers
• 39.7% self-employed
• 47.2% private for-profit
• Median income (2005 dollars): $23,400
• Median income for men: $26,700
• Median income for women: $19,100
• Median income for full-year, full-time workers: $31,500 (15.1% of actors)

Number of dancers and choreographers: 25,651

Professional dancers make up the smallest group of artists, and they are also the youngest, least educated, most racially and ethnically diverse, and most likely to be female. More than 80 percent of dancers are under 35. With a median age of 26, 15 percent are enrolled in school. Only 14 percent have bachelor’s degrees, about half the proportion in the labor force, and the lowest level of any artist group. Three-quarters of dancers are women and 40 percent are members of minority racial or ethnic groups. Most dancers are employed by private for-profit companies, but 22 percent are self-employed and 11 percent are employed by nonprofit organizations. Only 25 percent work full time all year, a proportion almost as low as actors. More than 10,000 dancers live in four states—California, New York, Florida, and Texas—but Nevada’s 1,385 dancers give the state the highest level of dancers per 10,000 people in the United States.

• 75.9% female
• 40.1% minority
• Median age: 26
• 80.8% under 35
• 14.4% with bachelor’s degree or higher
• 15.1% enrolled in school
• 24.9% full-year, full-time workers
• 22.3% self-employed
• 65.1% private for-profit
• Median income (2005 dollars): $20,000
• Median income for men: $20,400
• Median income for women: $18,300
• Median income for full-year, full-time workers: $34,600 (24.9% of dancers)

Source: American Community Survey   2003-2005