"The Theater Is Not a Corporation and Theater-Goers Are Not Customers"
Poland is facing a crisis over the state of public theaters in their country. Many Americans will find the idea of this foreign because - really - when was the last time many of us saw a government-funded public theater? But in Poland, this is a part of their national culture and heritage; a means of sharing stories about their national identity and creating an international artistic community.
Now, the fact that the artistic community in Poland is under attack isn't all that surprising, but the means by which this takeover is occurring is pretty shocking - at least to me. This isn't an outcry or a request for support; there really doesn't seem to be much we can do about Poland's trouble from here. But acknowledging the plight of fellow artists world-wide is part of the responsibility we take on as story-tellers, so I share this beautifully written and poignant manifesto in the hopes that it will spark something in you as it has in me. The fate of public theaters in Poland represents a chilling mirror to the fate of artists everywhere and also, in a way, to the growing impulse of governments to take action without explanation or allowing a say from their citizens. That's taking it a bit far, I know, but it's a theme that's everywhere these days and each time I see it, it resonates a little more with me.
The manifesto which follows is being read aloud after performances throughout Poland: "As theatre professionals, we wish to express our deep concern regarding the future of public theaters in Poland.
That is why, for the first time since the boycott of officially-sanctioned theaters under Martial Law, our community is trying to speak as one. We are hot addressing you from the standpoint of any particular faction or school of theatre. The matter is far more serious. What is a stake is the Polish model of artistic theatre, whose very existence is currently under threat. We hope that the survival of this model is something that matters not only to us, but also to you: our spectators and interlocutors, the people who contribute to the creation of culture. Several days ago, officials from the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Marshal's Office decided to revise the charters of local theaters and dismiss their directors, who are to be replaced by managers with a background in business. This was done without consulting the ensembles of the theaters in question, artists unions, or even the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Such unprecedented moves are becoming more and more common.
The city of Warsaw has, to this day, failed to come up with a consistent policy towards the theatre. Directors are being replaced seemingly at random, the Department of Culture at City Hall is unable to define its expectations vis-a-vis specific institutions, nor is it able to come up with any strategy regarding its theaters in general. The future of one of the most important and most accomplished Polish theaters, Teatr Dramatyczny, is currently uncertain. Recent statements by the theaters specialising in light entertainment, testify to their complete lack of responsibility for Polish culture. Meanwhile, theatres in the capital are drastically underfunded and lack the resources to put on new productions. This year, their subsidy has once again been cut by over 12 percent, going down from 91 to 80 million zlotys. Over the same period, the city budget for promotion has nearly doubled, and now stands at 60 million zlotys as compared to 35 million last year, even though artistic theaters enjoying a strong position in Poland and abroad would provide a truly effective means of promoting the city's culture.
The strength of Polish theatre is in the diversity of the idioms and aesthetics it employs. Yet this diversity might soon give way to uniformity, since most decision-makers act as if they had no need for culture that goes beyond the purely commercial, and assume that the public has no such need, either.
Subsidies for theaters in Poland are being systematically reduced. Consequently, theaters fall into debt, which is used as a convenient excuse to get rid of their artistic directors, instead of rethinking the policies which brought this about in the first place.
What we are fighting to uphold is the unique phenomenon that is artistic theatre in Poland. We realise that theatre changes with time, and that its institutional structures should change along with it — but this should not be done at the expense, and to the detriment, of theatre itself. We demand that theatre professionals have a say in any future decisions regarding theatre, we demand a debate on the system of financing theatre in Poland, where profitability is not the sole criterion. The theatre is not a corporation or a commodity, and theatre-goers are not customers. Instead of saying no to artists, let us say no to incompetent decision-makers."
