Performing Arts Continue to Struggle Post-Pandemic

By Jamie Markham

03/05/2025

               This was the 40th year of the Ostrander Awards.  Across the midsouth, every theatre would send their best shows and pray for a nomination. For actors in the world of community theatre, the Ostranders was the closest thing they could receive to a Tony Award. Moreso than that, this year – it was going to take place in the massive Orpheum instead of these smaller Halloran Center. The organization revealed nominees in each category prior to the big day, except one: the Eugart Yerian Award for Lifetime Achievement.

 

 The rumor mill always exists in a community based upon dramatics. I remember sitting in the back of the Orpheum, with a notepad in hand, writing nominations and winners right beside the production crew. The staff members kept whispering the name “Mike Detroit” repeatedly. Detroit, the Executive Producer for Playhouse Circuit, was going to win the Lifetime Achievement Award tonight- and most certainly, he did.

 

When Detroit stood up to the microphone, crowds began to leave the room in search of a drink from an already closed bar. “I think Memphis is in the beginning of an artistic renaissance,” said Detroit. In an already half-empty room, you could hear discourse from the different theatre groups.

 

While Mike Detroit spoke about how the performing arts groups of Memphis were showing growth and improvement, I could see disagreement on the face of many audience members. In the last few years, the COVID-19 pandemic hurt everyone. Very few groups, like Opera Memphis, came out with some modicum of success. While Mike Detroit waxed poetic on the stage, the truth of the situation was far more dire.

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The Performing Arts of Memphis have been struggling since the Pandemic. Even Playhouse Circuit, the only professional theatre group in Memphis, struggles to keep their seats filled. While Playhouse Circuit has pursued far more experimental productions in the last few years, the company oversaw the production of “The Lehman Trilogy” in January of 2024.

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 On the 2nd week of performances, only eight people bothered to show up on a single night. For a professional theatre, only eight bodies meant the night’s show would barely generate any revenue, let alone if any audience member had complimentary tickets.

Playhouse Circuit’s has struggled to fill their seats since the Pandemic.

 

Several of their shows such as 2023’s “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812” never held a full house. Even when I was given a complimentary ticket to the show, I was able to note maybe 30 individuals across the entire audience.

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The company’s tax returns tell a similar story. In 2022, Playhouse Circuit secured only $2.36 million in total profits for the year and performed worse than the first year of the pandemic where Playhouse Circuit raked in $2.61 million.

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 While Playhouse Circuit’s income as a professional theatre seems low compared to certain community theatres like Theatre Memphis, it is important to note that as a professional theatre, Playhouse pays their cast, and crew – while communities theatres like Theatre Memphis are purely on a volunteer basis.

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This story isn’t unique to Playhouse Circuit. In late 2023, the Collierville Arts Council (CAC) held a production of “Twelfth Night: the Musical” that was intended to run between September 15th to the 24th. Before the show began, Thursdays were cut due to lack of pre-ordered tickets. On their best day, the CAC only saw 40 people in attendance in a building that could hold over three hundred.

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“We lost nearly $22,000 on Twelfth Night,” said Terry Dean, former Executive Director of the CAC. According to Dean, Twelfth Night saved budget costs by reutilizing the set of their prior production, “Titanic”, which lost the council nearly $30,000.

In fact, the only show in the CAC’s 2023-24 schedule that made any money was their Christmas Musical “Elf” that opened during December of 2023.

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While the CAC manages to get by with the financial aid of Collierville’s elite such as the Dinstuhl family, the council has made attempts in the last few years to increase their revenue by selling alcohol at the Harrell Theatre. Despite the changes, the council still reported net losses in their 2023 tax returns.

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Most Theatre Troupes in Memphis can’t report more than $50,000 in financial gains. Several of the smaller theatre companies such as New Moon Theatre and Emerald Theatre Company were only able to file their returns under a 990-N, the tax file for groups making less than $50,000 a year.

 

To put that in perspective, the best performing theatres such as Theatre Memphis in the region tend to rake in between somewhere between $2.4 million and $7.1 million in the last five years.

 

These smaller theatres, commonly referred to as Division II theatres, have seen budget cuts across the board since the pandemic. While many groups managed to survive on these smaller budgets, certain groups have been forced to cut production costs.

Another Division II group, the University of Memphis theatre department, saw budget cuts that slashed their productions in half. In their 2023-2024 season, the department oversaw six shows that each lasted two weekends. At the start of their 2024-2025 season, the department was forced to cut down the shows to a single weekend with double shows on Saturday.

 

In addition to the weekend cuts, the budget cuts turned each production’s house manager and box office assistant into volunteer roles instead of paid positions.