Posts
Why Shakespeare Got Shafted
http://mirroruptolife.blogspot.com/2007/07/mirror-duped-boston-theatre-head-gets.html
The "Mirror Up To Life" blog, a blog on Boston Theatre, has a reference up to the whole question of CitiGroup's funding of Commonwealth Shakespeare. As we locals know, the production run was cut crazy short this year, a mere 1 week instead of the usual 3. When it rained on Saturday, we all thought we were done for. I don't know about anybody else, but I certainly was clapping when it came time to "thank our sponsor" for screwing us out of 2 weeks of theatre.
Say what you will about budgets and finances and where the money went. According to the article linked, the CEO took a salary cut of 100k this year, but still got a $1.265 million bonus. Shakespeare's budget, meanwhile, was sliced in half, to $480k.
Hey, I rented my chairs and put my cash in the hat when it came around. I wonder if the CEO wants a piece of that action, too?
2 comments:
This sounds like a plotline from Slings & Arrows (great series, by the way). Lesson - corporate sponsorship and Shakespeare (or any art form) do not always mix well. What a shame...
Thanks for the link.
It is actually pretty outrageous.
I had been kind of championing donating to the Commonwealth Shakespeare. Now I feel a little bad about that.
I should have known, as I have posted about Spaulding and the Wang/Citicenter before. But I learned my lesson this time.
Only donate to transparent non-profits.
Post a Comment