The Collective Unconscious

Joe wrote a letter today that I felt must be shared, just as theater should be.

RE: Thanks Again!

I know you are incredibly busy and I just want to say how grateful we are for you taking the time to help promote our theater.

There was also something I forgot to mention in the interview. Another one of the goals of Collective Unconscious is to make theater available to “the masses” so to speak. We are all strong proponents of theater, but theater in Omaha is very expensive. We know that it’s costly to produce, and there aren’t always the funds to make this viable, but we feel that for theater to really grow and thrive, it needs to be more accessible, especially to the younger (and poorer) students who will be the future of the theater community. $20-30 for a single ticket to see a two hour show is almost equivalent to a tank of gas, and a lot of people don’t even have the luxury of choosing between the two. Theater has its roots in entertainment for the poor, but in the last couple decades it has become “high-art” that is only within the means of the upper and middle classes.

My argument has always been, “why would the average person pay $20 to see a play when they can be entertained for just as long for $9 at the movie theater?” As theater supporters, we can appreciate the differences between film and live theater, but for someone who isn’t privy to the same experiences, they see two hours of entertainment for $20 or $9 and nine times out of ten, they’re going to go with what they perceive to be the better value. The community isn’t going to grow unless it finds ways to draw in people who do not generally go to see plays, and I feel like cost is a big factor. This is why we have priced our show at $8 with a $6 price for anyone who brings in canned food. We feel that this will allow us to recoup our advertising and production costs while still making our show affordable to just about anyone who wishes to see it. We understand that a lot of theaters struggle just to pay their monthly building expenses, and so we know that cheaper tickets are not an option for everyone, but we have the opportunity to make theater more accessible and we’re running with it. If we get one person in our audience who has never seen a play before, then I feel like we’ve accomplished something pretty great.

Thank you again for your time. This means a lot to us.

-Joe Fogarty