Over at the Parabasis blog, Isaac Butler is discussing an issue that consumes those interested in the theater: how to get younger audiences to see shows. In short, Butler rails against those who believe in the Internets as a magical solution to lure those elusive under-thirties, and proposes that instead companies put on shows that actually interest a younger audience.

I’ll edge my bets and say a combination of the two can’t hurt, but there’s something else at work here, and that something can’t be changed with using Facebook or better programming. I don’t have a miracle solution so I’m just going to think out loud a bit.

A fundamental problem is that theater isn’t part of the everyday discourse in the US. It’s not part of people’s daily lives. It’s not something people do and it’s not something people talk about with their friends (with clear exceptions in major cities, of course). Theater is never broadcast on TV, which makes its specific language alien to most. For the vast majority of Americans, going to the theater is an occasion, a “special event.” To change this, you have to educate audiences, and start them young. You essential have to radically change arts education in America, which is a much thornier endeavor than better programming.

As for pricing, it’s a problem too, but it’s not even the biggest one. I’m still traumatized by conversations I had a few years ago with the artistic directors of the Kasser at Montclair University and NYU’s Skirball Center. Both said that despite offering students tickets that were either free (Montclair) or deeply discounted (NYU), they still couldn’t get them to come. You give away tickets to good shows and kids still don’t come? Clearly price isn’t the only issue. And Twittering about shows isn’t a way out either.