Agree with Chris above. Besides, performing artists go back in our history to the beginning of time. Lavish staging @ audience ticket prices of hundreds of dollars ea isn’t exactly the best way to share one’s art with the most people … Think simple, Ms Martin. We’ll be okay as long as we continue to be as creative and flexible …

Heard an interesting discussion on the Diane Rehm Show this morning regarding charitable giving.  The guest Peter Singer is the author of "The Life You Can Save" in which he posits that charitable giving should be directed more towards eradicating poverty and hunger and saving the lives of children. Many wealthy people in America give to universities and museums ("buidlings") rather than organizations whose missions ware improving the lives of real people in dire need.  One caller was highly offended that Singer would even attempt to direct how people should distribute their own money, but Singer said that Americans give less than people in other wealthy countries and that less well off Americans give more than wealthier Americans as a percentage of income.  He challenged me to consider giving more overall and enlarging the pie so that more people can be helped and/or inspired to do and give more.

The performing arts carry a social atmosphere that is not shared by bulk entertainment. Hollywood, sports, recorded music, and concert tours provide distractions - but the live stage production, the county/state fairs, the street performers, they entice a sense of community. Without that, there is little but cold comfort for all of us. Vaudeville is gone, the era of radio shows is past. Where else would we look for a place to rally our community spirits? YouTube? Has anyone else seen “Mrs. Henderson Presents”?

Thank you, Judith.  YOu seem to be the only one on the Masthead today that has any clue of what the various companies in this country are going through.  Not only that, but you may be interested in the fact that the scholarship programs in many of our Schools of Fine Arts are in jeopardy because so much of their endowments are tied up in equity funds that are drying up.  It is a very worrisome problem and I am very disappointed with Liz and Candace because they seem to trivialize it in their pieces.