Steppenwolf Theatre announces major layoffs: ‘We’re not too big to fail’
2023/08/31
2023/08/31
The atrium lobby for Steppenwolf's theater-in-the-round, part of its campus on Halsted Street, on Oct. 25, 2021, in Chicago.
- E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/TNS
CHICAGO — Steppenwolf Theatre Company, one of Chicago’s most storied arts institutions and long a crucial part of the city’s identity, said Thursday that it was laying off 12% of its staff, effectively immediately.
Thirteen current employees have been let go, with seven open positions eliminated.
Steppenwolf executive director Brooke Flanagan said in an interview that the theater’s subscription base had fallen from about 10,000 subscribers in pre-pandemic 2019 to about 6,000 today. She also said that single-ticket sales were down 31%, even as expenses were up 19% over the same term. (Steppenwolf is currently negotiating with its front-of-house staff, which has formed a union and is not part of the layoffs.)
Those are sobering numbers at one of the city’s marquee cultural attractions.
Steppenwolf already has reduced its mainstage shows from eight productions to six in a season, as previously reported in the Tribune. Flanagan said those shorter seasons likely would continue for at least three years, or until the theater, which still has debt from the physical expansion of its Lincoln Park home, can find a more stable financial footing. The current plan reduces the theater’s overall annual budget from about $20 million to about $16 million.
Flanagan also said that the theater had chosen to focus on three core platforms: new work centering on its famous ensemble of artists, a commitment to teens and educators through its educational programs, and its ability to host other theaters, maintaining the broader theater ecology.
But there are to be cuts outside those areas. For example, the popular Front Bar on Halsted Street now will only open around performances, rather than most nights.
Although shocking for a theater that has expanded for so long, Steppenwolf’s cuts are not out of line with the nonprofit theater sector across the country, which has seen a staggering drop-off in audience demand and a rise in costs. The causes and solutions are both debated and contested, but Flanagan pointed to the upcoming 50th anniversary of Steppenwolf in 2026 as an opportunity for the city to reflect on the importance of a company that has taken Chicago shows and talent across the world.
In an interview Thursday, the City of Chicago’s cultural commissioner Erin Harkey (appointed during Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration) said that Mayor Brandon Johnson was aware of the crisis among nonprofit theaters and recently had convened a group that included tourism, business development officials and representatives from the city’s theaters. The goal, she said, was to assess the situation and develop a plan.
“This will have to be an all-hands-on-deck effort involving the city, the philanthropic community and the theaters,” Harkey said, also noting that the situation varied from institution to institution, with some being in better fiscal shape than others. She also said that the city’s Choose Chicago tourism arm plans a fall campaign designed to boost the city’s theater companies, the kind of effort that Flanagan said was essential for the sector’s recovery.
“We are not too big to fail,” Flanagan said. “Steppenwolf is an important part of the fabric of what makes this a great American city. This is a crucial time for philanthropists to give with seriousness and for audiences to rediscover the joy of live theater.”
© Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Steppenwolf Theatre Company, one of Chicago’s most storied arts institutions and long a crucial part of the city’s identity, said Thursday that it was laying off 12% of its staff, effectively immediately.
Thirteen current employees have been let go, with seven open positions eliminated.
Steppenwolf executive director Brooke Flanagan said in an interview that the theater’s subscription base had fallen from about 10,000 subscribers in pre-pandemic 2019 to about 6,000 today. She also said that single-ticket sales were down 31%, even as expenses were up 19% over the same term. (Steppenwolf is currently negotiating with its front-of-house staff, which has formed a union and is not part of the layoffs.)
Those are sobering numbers at one of the city’s marquee cultural attractions.
Steppenwolf already has reduced its mainstage shows from eight productions to six in a season, as previously reported in the Tribune. Flanagan said those shorter seasons likely would continue for at least three years, or until the theater, which still has debt from the physical expansion of its Lincoln Park home, can find a more stable financial footing. The current plan reduces the theater’s overall annual budget from about $20 million to about $16 million.
Flanagan also said that the theater had chosen to focus on three core platforms: new work centering on its famous ensemble of artists, a commitment to teens and educators through its educational programs, and its ability to host other theaters, maintaining the broader theater ecology.
But there are to be cuts outside those areas. For example, the popular Front Bar on Halsted Street now will only open around performances, rather than most nights.
Although shocking for a theater that has expanded for so long, Steppenwolf’s cuts are not out of line with the nonprofit theater sector across the country, which has seen a staggering drop-off in audience demand and a rise in costs. The causes and solutions are both debated and contested, but Flanagan pointed to the upcoming 50th anniversary of Steppenwolf in 2026 as an opportunity for the city to reflect on the importance of a company that has taken Chicago shows and talent across the world.
In an interview Thursday, the City of Chicago’s cultural commissioner Erin Harkey (appointed during Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration) said that Mayor Brandon Johnson was aware of the crisis among nonprofit theaters and recently had convened a group that included tourism, business development officials and representatives from the city’s theaters. The goal, she said, was to assess the situation and develop a plan.
“This will have to be an all-hands-on-deck effort involving the city, the philanthropic community and the theaters,” Harkey said, also noting that the situation varied from institution to institution, with some being in better fiscal shape than others. She also said that the city’s Choose Chicago tourism arm plans a fall campaign designed to boost the city’s theater companies, the kind of effort that Flanagan said was essential for the sector’s recovery.
“We are not too big to fail,” Flanagan said. “Steppenwolf is an important part of the fabric of what makes this a great American city. This is a crucial time for philanthropists to give with seriousness and for audiences to rediscover the joy of live theater.”
© Chicago Tribune
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