Chicago’s famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company is the latest major performing arts institution to report plummeting ticket sales and layoffs, with more than ten percent of employees set to lose their jobs. Leaders are blaming soaring operating costs due to inflation and a slower-than-expected “post-pandemic” economy.
Like numerous other theater companies in recent years, Steppenwolf embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion as a core company value, even going as far as to create policy pushing the use of transgender and gender “non-binary” pronouns, in an effort to “undo our internalized transphobia.”
In a statement released Thursday, Steppenwolf said it is laying off 12 percent of its staff, or 13 current employees. The theatre is also eliminating seven open positions. The company cited a “protracted post-pandemic economic recovery” and “the rising cost of inflation” in explaining the “difficult” decision.
Steppenwolf Theatre announces major layoffs: ‘We’re not too big to fail’ https://t.co/t2jrKmyrgy
— Chris Jones (@ChrisJonesTrib) August 31, 2023
Steppenwolf executive director Brooke Flanagan told The Chicago Tribune that the theater’s subscriber base has cratered from about 10,000 subscribers in pre-pandemic 2019 to about 6,000 today — an approximately 40 percent drop. She also said that single-ticket sales have plummeted 31 percent, even as expenses skyrocketed 19 percent over the same term.
“We are not too big to fail,” she said.
Flanagan stepped into her position in May 2020, touted as the first woman to serve as executive director in the company’s history. Steppenwolf adopted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles about two years ago, saying in a statement: “We are committed to creating an equitable and diverse workforce and environment on and off stage.”
The company also changed its hiring practices, saying it would prioritize “placing people from a variety of lived experiences and ethnicities in the boardroom, in its offices, in the ensemble and in leadership positions.”
Leaders even pushed for employees and artists to announce their pronouns.
“At Steppenwolf, we encourage folks to introduce themselves with their gender pronouns when they enter our space, at first rehearsal, in email signatures and more,” they said, adding that it is all part of a company-wide effort to “undo our internalized transphobia.”
As Breitbart News reported, major performing arts groups around the country are facing unprecedented financial crises that have led to layoffs and cancellations of entire seasons as their once-loyal audiences flee in droves and donations dry up.
Almost all of these organizations embraced wokeness and placed far-left political activism at the center of their artistic output and public messaging, alienating large portions of their faithful customer base in the process.
Among the non-profit organizations going through financial turmoil are The Public Theater in New York, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago.
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