What I have been taught not only by professors but also by history is that theatre is crucial to society. It inspires change and creates culture and causes big changes in the world. Many people underestimate the power of theatre, and that is a mistake. Others know the power and use it to their benefit. And instead of letting theatre be for everyone, they charge ridiculous prices for tickets.

In my life, I’ve been to my fair share of plays and musicals. Either on school trips or, when I was younger, I would go see my Dad in shows because we would get comp tickets as family. And pretty much every experience I have had in theatre spaces, has been that the audience always seems to be filled with older, rich, white people. There are two instances that come to mind especially that will illustrate my point. One more recent and one less so.

As part of my theatre course in 11th and 12th grade, we had to do a mandatory trip called TAPS. We would basically go to London and see shows and do workshops and they were always super fun. Anyway, in my junior year, one of the shows we saw was “Ghosts” by Henrik Ibsen. It’s consider classic theatre, and normally many find that boring, but we had been studying the show in class and the production itself was supposed to be incredibly good. And it was, truly it was amazing. We had arrived in the nick of time, and as a group of students we were excited to see this production we had been studying done correctly and well.

Upon trying to find our seats, I had an encounter with an older British woman. She was sort of sitting in our seats, and I casually mentioned “excuse me miss, but I think you are in our seats?” She got really huffy with me and angrily said “No these are ours.” I was going to push it, but she waved her hand at me as if dismissing me and I reluctantly sat in the seats above (there were thankfully enough seats.) I then looked around the theatre and noted everyone in the theatre was older (between 40s-70s) white, and well dressed.

People kept staring back at us, the only younger people in the audience. It was a patronizing stare, and I was kind of angrily uncomfortable. When the play begun, I was fully engrossed, but I noticed that the audience really wasn't understanding what was going on at all. When one of the characters finally confesses to his mother that he has syphilis, a really dangerous disease at the time, much of the audience chuckled at the way the actor did it. It was that moment that I realised most people in this theatre weren’t here for the experience of theatre truly, but instead because they were being pretentious.

Another more recent experience I had was when I saw “Stupid F#*@ing Bird” at the Arden. The audience was made up of entirely wealthy looking, older white folk, and then there were about 20 UArts students. And I got the same vibe from that audience that I got from when I saw “Ghosts.” They didn’t really get what cues to come in for (there was some audience participation, but you can’t just take that and disrupt the show constantly) and they were being super cynical and bitter. One old woman fell asleep, IN THE FRONT ROW! (Side note: The show was not some quiet classic. It was an adaption of a classic but it was loud and interesting and intense.) I could go on and on talking about experiences like this.

I didn’t really think about it when I was younger. But as I have gotten older, and especially now that I am in college for acting, I’ve really noticed the audiences at shows. And man, something needs to change.

I firmly believe that theatre can change the world, but in order to do that, theatre has to be accessible to the masses. Right now, if you want to go see any show in mainstream theatre, regardless of what it is, the tickets are incredibly expensive. In New York, Broadway tickets and so incredibly expensive for the worst seats, I could probably pay rent and still have some left.

And sadly, in this twisted world we live in, the only people who can really afford to see theatre are the top 4%, who tend to be white, and older. This is not the audience that theatre is meant for! The audience that is able to afford theatre right now are not the ones who are going to inspire change in the world. In fact, in most cases, this demographic DOESN’T want change. They want to keep everything as is, because it is a system that benefits them, and not anyone else.

This is not what theatre is meant to do. Theatre is meant to give a voice to the oppressed. It’s meant to do things, make people feel emotions and inspire action! This actually goes for all the arts, but I’m focusing on theatre at this moment.

As a young college student who is looking to make a career in the theatre, how can I expand my knowledge and experience when I can’t afford to see new theatre? And yes, there are always student rush tickets, but with those, it’s a hit or miss. There are limited spots for student rush, and some theatre companies don’t even offer student rush.

One of the theatres near my school recently changed how they price their tickets. If you are a student, it’s $10 and if you are part of the general public, it’s $20-30. Which is an incredible price, compared to the 100s of dollars that people normally pay. And I’ve been able to see really amazing works of theatre there! It’s not like the theatre itself is doing badly either, they are still putting productions on.

People want to see theatre. Theatre speaks to a primary place in people’s souls, and we all want some kind of theatre in our lives. Yes, theatre is for entertainment, but it is also so so much more than that. Theatre is important to life, as it carries the essence of it.