Question: Is Theater Inherently Elitist?
Yes.
Theater is labor, resource, and real estate intensive.
Theater must therefore be expensive to recoup its costs.
Or theater must rely on the patronage of an elite who can support it.
Theater cannot be mass produced, so it must appeal to specific, local audiences.
Theater is inflexible in format -- you must show up at the appointed time, and view it for the appointed length of time.
Mass produced media is less expensive to create, less expensive to consume, easier to distribute, and easier to consume.
I notice that most of the blogs answering this elitism question seem to be caught up in the content of the plays. Probably because they're written by writers, who are concerned with the writing.
I'm a producer, so I'm interested in how plays are produced, so the answer to that question seems pretty obvious to me.
