The Price of Theatrical Diffusion
Did you know Atlanta has 105 theatres? 105! That’s a lot!- though it’s companies, not venues.
Clint Johnson compiled the list and wrote about it on the Atlanta Theatre Mailing List. You can get a copy with a $5 donation to the Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts. The tragedy here is that the geographic nature of Atlanta means harnessing the power of all that talent is difficult. Atlanta would have been a stronger arts community all along if there had been a central theater district.
Right now we have three small districts. The Woodruff Arts Center controls the arts from 16th to 14th street. At one time, the Academy and Theatrical outfit were all in walking distance, but no longer. The 14th street playhouse is a great venue with several companies leasing space, but if each had their own, the district would be stronger. Only The Centre for Puppetry Arts and Whole World controls their own space without Woodruff oversight.
Another district is in Little 5 Points. 7 Stages, Horizon, and Dad’s Garage are all near, along with Laughing Matters and others performing at Manuel’s Tavern. This is where the new work gets done well and affordably. Still, more theaters would help and it’s a hike from Dad’s to the others.
Lastly there is a bit of a theater district in Marietta and while they do nice work out there, that’s likely a job for a more marietta oriented blog.
Even with these three concentrations, we’re still looking at less than 20% of all theatres. Imagine if many of the theatres currently renting space could get their own spaces in midtown on Cresent or Juniper. Image if we could follow the lead of Theatrical Outfit and create a downtown district in Fairlie-Poplar! We’d have something special.
How would it help? Imagine the increased traffic in ticket sales from Atlantix alone! Right now, there is one booth at Underground and they sell some tickets. Another one might be coming to Buckhead, but several theaters rarely sell out their Atlantix allotment. If there were a major theater district with a dozen theaters, those theaters would reap the benefits from walk up sales and tourist awareness! It would also spawn theater related restaurants and businesses. There is nothing wrong with local theater. It’s a great entree into the genre, but having a true vibrant district makes the trip there special, and that makes the city better.