For decades, the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region has been well regarded for producing theater with social vision and impact and progressive values. With the election over, now what? What lies ahead for the DMV theater community? Will the region find itself in dark times? Will the theater community be or think itself immune? Will the community be part of some nonprofit resistance to the national shift right?
I ask with these words in mind:
It’s really easy for us theater artists to forget to read the newspaper and talk to people about things that have nothing to do with the theater. Who are we having conversations with? Who are we surrounding ourselves with to understand people’s priorities that are outside of our norm or little circle?
—Shanara Gabrielle in her recent interview with DCTA’s John Stoltenberg
Is the past a guide? Some of us can recall that in the earlier term of the soon-incoming Administration, a signature cultural policy direction was an effort to strip funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). As we know, their missions were not considered core to government priorities. We also know that the NEA and NEH provided substantive funding to state arts agencies and local performing arts venues. In the past, those two grant-making agencies survived even as a conservative Administration viewed their missions as outside the core responsibilities of the Federal government. But those past times are not now.
Should we concern ourselves that the DC area will once again witness, as I all too readily recall, a “Robert Mapplethorpe-like” controversy that might affect the performing arts? Is it so far-fetched to fear the next administration might introduce language affecting grant applicants — perhaps with a more directive attitude as to what funding priorities are? Will those theatergoers counted on for donations to cover the true cost of producing theater stay the course should the government overreach even about who can use what bathroom? Will well-heeled boards and board members be willing to risk possible consequences beyond their theater work?
Even more, as we in the theater community are part of a much wider world of need, how will long-time donors respond when there will be so many new needs in the larger world beyond the arts to take care of? Will private sources of funding from philanthropic organizations be able to cover the expected drop in national and perhaps private-sector support when, say, actual human beings are rounded up to be placed in encampments perhaps not far from downtown DC? Will donors decide to help them and give less to the performing arts? For donors to open their wallets to support the arts, how do we make clearer what we do and plan to do well beyond the day-to-day?
Will there be a regional performing arts plan beyond something that might be seen as performative compared to immediate human needs?
Remembering past federal government shutdowns, there were huge economic effects In the DMV area. Will proposed government policy and funding changes lead government employees to freeze their discretionary spending until the chaos sorts out? That is what has happened in the past, I recall. Perhaps we might think of the area’s thousands upon thousands of government employees and contractor staff as an “identity” at this moment in time.
Questions abound.
- Are there boldface names that can make a difference as we ponder any next steps as a performing arts community? Will members of the current President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities resign in public protest of incoming Administration policies and plans? It has been done before. (Current PCAH co-chairs are Bruce Cohen and Lady Gaga.)
- Will theaters band together to make a “statement” as was once done with a “ghostlight” protest?
- How does the DMV theater community as a whole and tightly together respond to the Project 2025 report indicating that funding for any number of current functions (including the arts, as I read it) are not a core responsibility of government? If not working together, will only the well-heeled survive to the detriment of those less blessed?
So, let’s zoom out. We are part of a larger whole beyond the theater community. When real human beings are rounded up come the afternoon of January 20, 2025, or soon thereafter, or when current DMV government employees some of whom we likely know find themselves locked out of their workspaces, or when large contractors find themselves short of funds, how will the DMV theater community respond? As Shanara Gabrielle asked: “Who are we surrounding ourselves with to understand people’s priorities that are outside of our norm or little circle?”
We remember another quote:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
—Martin Niemöller
ALSO BY DAVID SIEGEL:
How will the next Administration affect DMV arts? (November 23, 2024)
What will happen to DMV theater in the next four years? (November 13, 2024)
