I think of the Portland State University Dance Series, which brought numerous national companies to town at low ticket prices. My wife is a dance fan, so we were season subscribers. When PSU decided it couldn’t afford a dance department, the Dance Series, which had been hidden in the department budget, closed down. A friend who ran a very successful lecture series considered taking it over and looked at the books and business model. The Series mission statement said “we will pay our performers as much as possible and keep ticket prices affordable”. My friend said “Their mission is ‘We will go broke’”. The Dance Series intention was to make tickets affordable to and low income people — but as a regular attender, I could see that actually they were subsidizing the middle and upper middle class.

After they folded a new nonprofit, White Bird, formed to bring dance to town. They charge realistic prices but have programs to bring people from social service agencies, low income high schools, homeless programs to performances. They also have student and senior discounts. They have much larger audiences than PSU did, and many more low income people actually attend the performances.

Extra credit: Without looking it up, what is a dramaturge?