NY Post - The vast majority of theater tickets last season were purchased by a middle-aged white women, according to an audience demographic report conducted by the Broadway League, a trade association.
The average theatergoer is a 44-year-old woman who attends plays frequently, the report said. Not surprisingly, the report found that most people who go to Broadway plays are well-heeled.
Maybe that’s because the average ticket price is north of $100.
Theater lovers also tend to be highly educated, according to the report.
1 comment:
White middle aged women maintaining prominence in Broadway audiences speaks, in large part, to the profile of the average tourist. They fill almost 70% of seats, with foreigners buying up about 25%. Of course, they will have money to spend. Any well rounded education draws people to the theater experience. As well, women outnumber men in Arts education globally by 10-20%.
Education abroad is far more inclusive of the Arts, as are public appreciation and support.
The educated rich white husbands tend to major in business admin, and will predictably be more intrigued with competitive sports events. NFL game decent seats run above US $200. Mostly white men buy 70% of the seats.
The satisfying theater experience transforms all participants for life; the sports game for as long as the beer lasts and your team is winning.
Theater actors may make a modest living doing Broadway work at around $1200 per week, yet the average annual salary for dues-paying Equity actors was just under $15,000 in 1999. Rookie NFL players currently start at over $400,000 annually.
If we profile the Rock and Pop music audiences demographics shift, but seat prices skyrocket. Across other sports events, demographics vary, and ticket prices go somewhat down. In either case, idolatry drives the consumer, however salaried, to pay the price. And their heroes grow very wealthy indeed.
What do you support? Who do you worship? What resonates? The stats tell us the masses are more easily influenced primarily by passive, mindless entertainment, and that theater attendance is, sadly, not as popular. Look to the US educational system for your explanation.
Arts funding has been way down for decades. Students lives are all fiercely competitive, with learning focused on maths and sciences. Physical education is being phased out, as well as recess. Obedience and consumerism are the true curriculum, it seems, while creativity--the life spring of health, joy and civilization itself, is pushed further away to ensure the work slave mentality.
Before the turn of the last century, there were over 3,000 opera houses in Oklahoma alone. Americans were once much more connected to their senses and their humanity. The New Deal fostered temporary Arts revival, but the primary military/industrial agenda of subsequent governments almost completely succeeded in dissociating people from their true selves, even by such minor but consistent attempts through bought media to negatively portray theater goers. Genuine journalism would ask the questions of how a news worthy story actually developed.
Natalia Kuzmyn
Post a Comment