Change is brewing

Co-Founder and Artistic Producer of the Studio Theatre, Joy Zinoman, announced her retirement this week after a 35 year leadership. The Washington Post broke the story on the front of the style section, and my personal favorite quote from the article was when asked about her plans for retirement, she said, "I'm interested in wanderlust and adventure and working on my silverware drawer."

The Theatre Communications Group released its "2008 Theatre Facts." For those of you interested in numbers, according to the TCG, Theatres contributed $1.8 billion to the US economy last year, attendance was up 1.9% from 5 years ago, but 50% of theaters still closed their seasons in the red due to a 19% growth in expenses. 32 million audiences served. It will be interesting to see how those trends change from 2008 to 2009.