Theatre Surviving

Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theater will celebrate its 200th anniversary on February 3. I love all things "olde tyme" and I was impressed by this theater's pedigree when I read an article about it in Variety last week.

The theater, the nation's oldest continuously operating theater, has some interesting history, but it also has an interesting present.

Along with its luminous past, Walnut Street also boasts contemporary bragging rights. Midway through a record-breaking year, the WST continues to defy the current economic gloom, running without a deficit for more than 15 years straight and operating with an uncommonly high 85% earned income. Its subscription base (north of 57,000) is one of the largest in the U.S.

Very impressive, though many theatre artists and managers might not be happy about how they make these numbers.

WST producing artistic director Bernard Havard provided a more vital legacy 26 years ago, when he transformed the venue from a struggling rental house to a thriving not-for-profit, self-producing regional theater.

In addition to the 1,088-seat main auditorium, the 80-seat blackbox Independence Studio has its own five-show subscription season dedicated to newer works, while the fifth floor studio is rented at subsidized rates to incubate companies lacking a home.

Havard points out that during its storied past, WST has gone through bankruptcies and sheriff sales and is one of the most expensive U.S. theaters to run, having inherited seven union contracts.

Although Havard had "high flown ideas" and a commitment to Shakespeare when he arrived from Atlanta, he found he had to abandon them when the no-show rate for the classics reached 26%.

"It was a bitter pill to swallow, but I'm pragmatic," he admits, recalling the banner on WST's program in the 1840s: "Vox populi."

The theater's current season is pretty free of "high
flown ideas", but I love popular theater so I'm not complaining. A season full of big musicals and contemporary classics might not be for everyone, but I bet it's a lot of fun!

Lots of impressive people have worked the boards and walked the asiles. Jessica Tandy and Marlon Brando appeard at the Walnut in the pre-Broaway tryout of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947. Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes, owned the threatre at one point. Even Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette have patronized the Walnut. 

Check out an amazing photo gallery of the theater's history.

Read the full article in Variety.