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What the NYC Theatre Field Needs Now

The Health + Wealth Report 

We are excited to share our report, “Health and Wealth: Supporting NYC Theatremakers Through Data and Insights” This report – the first of its kind – endeavors to empower the New York City non-profit theatrical field with the data and context we need to tell our story, advocate for support, and create opportunities for the collaboration and elevation of all theatermakers. These are the keys to strength and resilience for the field in this moment. We are all here, together.

 

These findings are informed by survey data on our membership reflecting on their operations, finances, staffing, and activities in 2019, 2022, and 2023. Designed in collaboration with Skeleton Key Strategies and SMU DataArts, the National Center for Arts Research, the survey endeavored to capture a pre-COVID baseline year plus two additional years of activity after the most acute period of programmatic and financial disruption. 

This report reflects the exploration of the following broad questions in the survey:

  • How did the financial wellbeing of non-profit theatrical organizations in New York City change between 2019 and 2023?

  • What are the current challenges and opportunities facing these organizations?

  • How did trends vary for organizations with different budget sizes and relationships to their workspace (rent vs. own)?

  • How did trends vary based on the characteristics of communities served by these organizations?

We’ve gone beyond interpretation of the story as told in data. “Health and Wealth” applies our knowledge of how NYC theatre has fared over the longer term and in the building crisis of 2024 and 2025. This is a moment for bold action and new approaches to uplifting all of us in this field. 


Read the full report to discover our calls to action for each of us - alongside important findings about workforce trends, how access to spaces for work and performance impact resilience, and how stories for organizations serving specific communities differ from the field at large.