Arts CHAC’s Last Season
Matthew Kwatinetz, CEO and producing artistic director of the Captiol Hill Arts Center, announced in the Weekly that CHAC won’t produce any more theater seasons. That’s not so surprising—arts administrators have been worrying about the subscription model for years. It always seemed a little weird for a start-up theater like CHAC to adopt it. But it was this quote that stopped me:
“Everything [we do] is really successful, except the theater season,” says Kwatinetz. “If what we do is so important to the community, they have to come out. If the Seattle audience doesn’t recognize Seattle value, the value will have to migrate elsewhere.
Which sounds like a thinly-veiled sneer at theater audiences for not paying CHAC enough attention. (Dude: Don’t blame your audiences for not showing up; it’s their prerogative to ignore you.) That and a threat to… what? Move to San Francisco? Take your ball and go home?
CHAC will continue to rent space to other companies, which is a good thing. They have a nice theater and shows like King John, by the upstart crow company, look awfully good in there.
Be snooty, fuck off. Attitudes like Matthew's are the big problem with theatre. The ego does not match the quality of the product. I wish all the ego divas in theatre, male and female, would just die off or go away.