{"id":2516160,"date":"2026-07-24T20:53:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2516160"},"modified":"2026-07-24T20:53:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:53:19","slug":"oskar-eustis-and-l-a-theaters-confront-the-end-of-nonprofit-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/oskar-eustis-and-l-a-theaters-confront-the-end-of-nonprofit-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"Oskar Eustis and L.A. theaters confront the end of nonprofit movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

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He said the quiet part out loud. As the artistic director of New York\u2019s Public Theater and one of the art form\u2019s most prominent leaders, Oskar Eustis is known to do that. And as always, he got the art world talking.<\/p>\n

When Eustis, 67, announced Wednesday that he would step down from his role at the Public in 2028 \u2014 after 23 years \u2014 he said in a New York Times interview that \u201cthe American nonprofit theater movement is over.\u201d<\/a> This has been whispered about and lamented since the COVID-19 pandemic led to temporary theater closures across the country that have since become permanent, but it is rare to hear it expressed so candidly. <\/p>\n

Did Eustis, one of the key players in that vaunted movement \u2014 the man who helped foster \u201cHamilton\u201d<\/a> \u2014 really mean what he said? And if so, how does theater move on in the face of obstacles that at times feel as though they are scattered across an increasingly difficult course? In a wide-ranging follow-up interview with the Los Angeles Times, Eustis addressed the path forward. <\/p>\n

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<\/picture>\n
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Lin-Manuel Miranda and Phillipa Soo portray Alexander and Eliza Hamilton in \u201cHamilton.\u201d The megahit premiered off-Broadway at the Public Theater under Oskar Eustis in 2015.<\/p>\n

(Disney+)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

It\u2019s not an easy one, but Los Angeles theater leaders working in the trenches, including Tarell Alvin McCraney at Geffen Playhouse, Danny Feldman at Pasadena Playhouse and Snehal Desai at Center Theatre Group, already knew that. They talked with the Los Angeles Times about their plans at the crossroads reached by American theater in light of Eustis\u2019 imminent exit.<\/p>\n

Eustis traces the rise of the American nonprofit theater movement to the late 1950s when W. McNeil \u201cMac\u201d Lowry, director of the arts and humanities program at the Ford Foundation in New York, began organizing existing regional theaters into a national movement. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened during that period was that a consensus emerged,\u201d Eustis said, noting that it was expressed in the form of national endowments, state arts agencies, public policy institutes and corporate philanthropic departments. \u201cAn idea of the common good was held throughout the country, and there were many stakeholders. And part of that idea of the common good was a broadly held belief that Americans deserved serious, non-market-driven performing arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

With no feudal background, America lacked a capital city like London or Paris designed to showcase the arts, so the idea spread across all 50 states. This led to the proliferation of the regional theater movement, said Eustis, as well as that of symphony orchestras and ballet companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe explosion of the regional theater movement is actually, in retrospect, astonishing,\u201d Eustis said. \u201cFrom a few scattered theaters in the 1950s, by the early \u201870s, there were over 400 professional nonprofit theaters in every state of the union. Tens of thousands of people were employed. Millions and millions of audience members every year. That\u2019s the field that I walked into in the early \u201870s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifty years later, those stakeholders have \u201cabsolutely zero consensus on whether theater should exist as a nonprofit performing arts field or whether we should exist at all,\u201d Eustis said. \u201cIt\u2019s gone.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve kind of been living, in a way, off inertia of this old idea,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The great pandemic pause, along with the racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd\u2019s murder and the continued fracturing of a shared reality under President Trump, served to reveal how fragile that consensus was, Eustis said, and, \u201cIt\u2019s not coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where does that leave American theater in 2026?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re faced with the need to prove to the people in our individual communities that we matter enough to them that they should support us,\u201d Eustis said. \u201cNow, that\u2019s not a very bad demand to put on an art form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Except, as every theater that has lately dared put on a show created by new, experimental or unknown artists knows, it can feel like an insurmountable task.<\/p>\n

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\"A <\/picture>\n
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Danny Feldman, artistic director of Pasadena Playhouse, said that the days of theaters underpaying talent are over.<\/p>\n

(Brian van der Brug \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Smaller theaters across the country, including many in L.A., have shuttered with staggering regularity in the last six years, which puts even greater pressure on the city\u2019s most prominent nonprofits to shine a light on a sustainable model moving forward.<\/p>\n

Feldman, Pasadena Playhouse\u2019s artistic director, noted that Eustis represents the second generation of leaders of the \u201cfirst chapter\u201d of the nonprofit regional theater movement. \u201cAnd that to me is what is now undeniably at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he and Eustis have discussed the subject at length. \u201cWe are now in a very different era. And the things that got us to this point are not the things that are going to get us to the next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCraney, Geffen Playhouse\u2019s artistic director, said forging a path forward in nonprofit theater without succumbing to commercial pressure to produce only guaranteed hits requires the delicate balance of surfing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there\u2019s no better place to surf than in L.A.,\u201d McCraney said over the phone from the Public, where he was meeting with Eustis and other theater leaders to share ideas. \u201cI feel very connected to a bunch of folks who recognize that the regional theater model has always had to have radical vision, and that those radical visions need revision, because our most practical job is to make sure that communities have stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"A <\/picture>\n
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Tarell Alvin McCraney, artistic director of Geffen Playhouse, compared the balancing act theater leaders must perform to surfing.<\/p>\n

(Jay L. Clendenin \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

It\u2019s not just the way theater tells \u2014 and funds \u2014 stories that must evolve. It\u2019s the entire business model, the leaders note.<\/p>\n

The beauty and the founding of the original regional movement, said Feldman, was artists saying, \u201cNew York is not just where it\u2019s at. We\u2019re going to go to our communities. We\u2019re going to make things with and for them, and really build these ecosystems that are deeply entrenched in these local communities around the country. … And I think the underbelly of that \u2014 that maybe has not been discussed as much \u2014 was always an element of subsidized labor involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

In L.A. and elsewhere that meant a lot of artists in the front and back of the house working for incredibly low wages. The pandemic effectively put an end to that, and as workers demanded fair compensation, the cost of producing shows skyrocketed. Most theater leaders agree that part is as it should be. Eustis points to the recent unionization of the Public\u2019s production department as a case in point.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time in history, everybody who\u2019s swinging a hammer on our productions has health insurance,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have it through the union. That\u2019s a good thing. And it\u2019s put a shock wave through the whole industry, but you know what? We figured out how to pay development directors. We should figure out how to pay carpenters. That\u2019s part of growing up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"A <\/picture>\n
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Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Snehal Desai said Oskar Eustis\u2019 departure from New York\u2019s Public Theater represents a \u201cpass the mantle\u201d moment.<\/p>\n

(Etienne Laurent \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Desai, CTG\u2019s artistic director, said he views Eustis\u2019 decision to step down as a \u201cpass the mantle moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOskar has been a huge mentor to so many of us,\u201d Desai said. \u201cIt\u2019s up to us, the next generation of leaders, to figure it out, just as his generation did in the \u201860s, \u201870s and \u201880s when they built these institutions for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

At CTG that means exploring a new way of doing things including touring shows, intensive work in various communities and site-specific productions, all of which \u201ccan change the financials and the model of how we\u2019re doing business.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Eustis? He plans to leave the Public in the best possible shape for the next generation of artists, and never wavers from its core mission. \u201cThis is a theater of democracy that believes that the culture belongs to everybody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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