Introduction

There are two areas of management (decision making) in the theatre. Artistic decisions about the physical setting (scenery and costumes) and the actors’ performances occupy the foreground and are normally made by the appropriate artists in terms of current conventions (styles). These change over time because of innovations introduced by individuals who find current practices unacceptably restrictive. The discussion of these sorts of decisions and changes belongs to other chapters of this book.

The background is occupied by a context of other conventions by means of which the theatre operates as a social institution. It is these nonartistic conventions and their changes that are the subject of this chapter. This goal of social management is to organize the relationship between performers and the public in such a way that it provides the theatre personnel with a living. In a commercial (nonsubsidized) theatre such as that in the United States, the management must arrange for the performance of something attractive to an audience at a convenient time in a convenient place at an acceptable price, so that the gross box office income at least equals (and preferably exceeds) the gross cost of creating the performance.

Obviously there is a middle ground in which the two areas of management meet. When artistic decisions require the spending of money they affect the cost of the performance and therefore its possibility of profit. Any decision to spend more money on theatres, scenery, costumes, or actors must be justified in terms of its potential to increase revenue more than it increases cost and thereby increase net income.