Free ART for EVERYONE!

Half a Century of Bread In 1984, Bread and Puppet Theater, that shaggy band of cardboard jockeys in Glover, Vermont, released its "Why Cheap Art?" manifesto. This short document begins "PEOPLE have been THINKING too long that ART is a PRIVILEGE of the MUSEUMS & the RICH" (I'm not yelling at you; that's how they print it), and goes on to say "ART has to be CHEAP & available to EVERYBODY." This year is the 50th anniversary of Bread and Puppet, a group that formed out of the 60s counter culture and has stayed true to its roots ever since. The group just finished up a series of performances and installations in New York to celebrate five decades of baking bread and resisting the intrusion of capitalism into all aspects of life. (In an antithetical note, the Guggenheim Museum is currently featuring an adaptation of Peter and the Wolf by Isaac Mizrahi. Trust me, you are not privileged enough to get tickets.) The Manifesto may not have been released until almost halfway through the life of Bread and Puppet, but encapsulates the radical idea of the group: art is so important, it should be considered a public right, like air or water or, well, bread. And, they would be happy to sell you a copy. Hey, man, they said "cheap", not "free". Meanwhile, on Broadway… Bread and Puppet has been fighting the good fight for a long time, but, like it or not, capitalism does run the big show. While B&P was baking bread and performing in a church, across town the 32 musicals and plays running on Broadway broke the sales record for Thanksgiving week, raking in $31.5 million in ticket sales in one week. The top seller, once again, was Book of Mormon, which the invisible hand of the market has blessed with tickets ranging all the way up to $477. With the average ticket price on Broadway last week hovering at around $120, you can hardly say the place is "available to EVERYBODY". I know that comparing a ragtag band of hippies to the corporate theater world is like comparing apples and Ferraris, but I doubt the "unit of enjoyment per dollar spent" calculation could ever truly come out in favor of $477 tickets, when a full theatrical experience could also be had for $18. On the other hand, attendance at Bread and Puppet requires you to mentally unpack statements like "The overt extrajudicial capabilities of the society system allow the shatterer of worlds to function legally to cultivate destructions so minute and gigantic, the eye cannot perceive and the mind cannot behold them." The most complicated thing to wrap your mind around on Broadway right now is a bunch of sassy drag queens in Kinky Boots. Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now Yes, I'm quoting Red Hot Chili Peppers. Deal with it. But, seriously, what if someone came along and gave away the art for free? In 2011, the theater world in the Twin Cities was all twitterpated over Mixed Blood's announcement of its new Radical Hospitality program, in which the company abolished the business of selling tickets. Two years later, it appears that the system is working for them. A coalition of private and corporate philanthropy, combined with donations from individuals appears to be keeping their financial boat afloat. This week on Howlround, Mixed Blood Artistic Director Jack Reuler gives an interview in which he talks about how he believes this model has helped improve the art at his theater. This model is not entirely revolutionary. After all, National Public Radio (including our homegrown Minnesota Public Radio) and PBS have been rocking non-commercial, access-for-everyone system since the '70s (with only the occasional pledge drive getting in the way). Mixed Blood also has the benefit of almost four decades of operation and national recognition to help it draw attention and foundational support. While this model may work for a larger, established group, how could it possibly work for the rest of us? Oracle Productions, a small group in Chicago, has been trying it out. In 2010 (a year before Mixed Blood's switchover), Oracle converted its entire operation into what it calls Public Access Theatre, giving away tickets not only to its theatre productions, but also to a film series, a radio series and variety of other public performances. So, small theatre companies looking at Mixed Blood and wishing and hoping, you now have a realistic model. Getting Paid The internet has proven a powerful ally in disseminating access and information (and, yes, porn) to the masses. Modern technology has made all sorts of art cheap and readily available to the public, just as Bread and Puppet has always dreamed. However, the internet has ruined many other things (according to your grandparents and various angry political pundits), especially the old system of artists actually being paid for their work. An entire generation has grown up now seeing music, movies, art and literature as basically free commodities available with a few clicks and keyboard taps. Groups like the Motion Picture Association of America have been fighting what they call "piracy" for years to protect their profit streams. They even have a place where you can go, as an empowered citizen with a clear sense of moral duty, to report piracy and copyright theft, on what is probably the least-used webform in the history of the internet. Playwright Ira Gamerman wrote a recent article about how writers like himself should break with tradition and use the internet to its fullest advantage. In a nutshell, he exhorts his fellow artists to stop viewing the freeloaders as, well, freeloaders, and start viewing them as potential converts to your cause. In other words, "First one's free, kid." Or, more seriously, the future of live performance will have to depend on creating spectacle (Broadway, big, brassy and sassy!) or building community (Revolutionary Hospitality). Is this the true future? Will it pay? Does it matter if it pays? Why am I ending this article with so many questions? No one can say!