First: Seattle Rep has issued a survey—leaked to me by a patron—asking, basically, what will it take to make you people happy? They ask dozens of questions about childcare, quality of the bathrooms, political content of the plays, ticket cost, etc., etc.

You can see (and, I assume, take) the survey here.

Second: While the Rep surveys, ACT acts. Recognizing that the season-ticket model will probably die along with its audience base, ACT has issued a gym-membership-type model. It sounds boring, but it's a small revolution in the way big theaters do business.

Instead of asking people to pay hundreds of dollars up front to see each play once, people can pay $25 a month to go to theater the same way they go to movies or dance clubs or concerts or pretty much anything else—when they feel like it. (Sports are an exception because sports are always an exception.)

This month at ACT, for example, a member could see the break/s, Below the Belt, Orange Flower Water, and whatever music or comedy is programmed at the Central Heating Lab in the downstairs theater. They could see them all five times. They could bring a friend who'd get a half-price ticket.

ACT has been talking about easing out of the subscription model into a monthly membership model for years—this Wild West, throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks era seems as good a time as any to test it out.

Now the real question stands—can they bring and produce theater that people (who can't afford season tickets) will want to come see?