Do you really want young people to come to your theater?

Isaac Butler's latest post on his blog, Parabasis, is a rant about the hyprocisy of Boomer content desperately marketed at young audiences. If you're in a hurry, see the summary from You've Cott Mail below, but if you've got a few extra minutes, and especially if this isn't a brand new concept to you, go to the source because the commentary and debate that follows is where it really gets interesting.

I'm going to reveal the secret to getting young people to come to your theatre and see shows: (1) Do work they want to see. (2) Endeavor to do it well. (3) Offer it at a price point they will find reasonable. Theater companies and producers for the most part do not want to do these three things. What they want to do is do the same work and use marketing to trick younger audiences into thinking it's what they want to see. Now let's say for a moment that you are a theater producer or larger theater and you want to do the above three things. You just don't know how. That's fine! Here's the secret to solving that problem: There is probably a theater company in your area that is succeeding at doing those three things. Produce their next show in your space. You know where this happens with some regularity? Chicago and D.C. Both quite healthy theatre towns with interesting, vibrant scenes with quite a bit of interplay between more established theaters and young up-and-comers. And if you don't want to do that, that's okay. If you don't want to do that kind of work, that's okay. Just stop claiming you want younger audiences. You don't want them. You feel entitled to them. There's a difference. Be proud of the audience you have and keep making work for them.