Contributed
Anthony McDonald inside his hallowed new place of employment.
Anthony McDonald, the new executive director of the Shubert Theatre, took a tour recently of the theater’s facility at Co-op High a block away. It brought him back to his own experiences of doing theater in high school, in Kenilworth, N.J.
“We had a makeshift stage in one of the classrooms. It wasn’t as high tech, let’s just say,” he said in an interview this week. But the school did have a robust arts program, from theater to band to chorus. And it was enough to get him on the path into the theater world that has led him, at 32, to helm the legendary College Street venue as it plans how to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic and move into the future.
McDonald received a BFA from Howard University and an MFA from Columbia University in theater management. He then worked as a manager on runs of numerous plays on and off Broadway, including, most recently, The Lion King at the Minskoff Theatre and Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre. He comes to New Haven ready to get to know its community and continue the Shubert’s work in being ever more welcome to it.
“One of the things I realized quickly,” he said, is that “New Haven is an extremely diverse community, and coming from New York, I’m accustomed to diversity in that way, too.” Throughout his career, as a theater professional, “I’ve also always wondered ‘can we do more?’” he said — from fostering the work of more diverse playwrights to involving more diverse producers. As he settles into his new position at the Shubert, that mentality involves figuring out how to keep the strong base of support the Shubert already has while expanding its reach into the community around it.
Some of that, McDonald said, is about programming, that is, bringing in acts that appeal to an ever broader range of people. “Whether it’s a concert or a comedy show, or theatrical show,” he said, he would like to “try to bring them to us,” and “hopefully find ways to get the tours to come to us first in the market.” Another aspect of that work involves asking the New Haven community: “What else is the community wanting? What else does it appreciate?” McDonald said. “We don’t have to fit into a box. We can present anything if we can find it and bring it to them.”
“It’s of course a challenge,” McDonald continued. “We have other presenting partners in the state that are bigger and could attract people to them. But there’s a reason people keep coming to us, and I want to make people realize that and see why.”
McDonald is cognizant that ticket prices are a significant barrier to people enjoying theater. Theater productions are, after, expensive, requiring a big crew and budget for materials to work. Some of these costs are hidden from the general public.“ When we do our job right in theater, an audience member won’t realize half of what’s going on in the background,” McDonald said. A theatergoer comes in contact with perhaps “10 to 20 people, from the ticket taker to the bartender and ushers, to the actors on stage. But we know there’s probably 100 people all around you doing a job to pull off that show. That’s why it costs so much.”
McDonald has a few ideas for how to overcome some of that obstacle — possibly using technology theaters have begun to use in response to the pandemic, which has made traditional theater impossible.
“Especially after this past year, we realize that people can adapt regarding digital technology,” McDonald said. “My goal is to see if we can continue that trend when we’re fully back — incorporate technology to provide another alternative for people to experience theater, even if the ticket prices are too much for people to afford. If we can do it right, it could be a really cool experience for people going forward — whether you’re at home in New Haven, or at home in London.”
In other words, the streaming technologies that theaters have had to learn to employ to stay afloat during the pandemic can be used to help them recover from it — and expand their audiences even after people can return to live theater. “Technology is not something we have to be scared of. It’s something we can embrace,” McDonald said. “I look at it as a set of opportunities. How can I use technology to improve the experience for my guests?”
But first there are the challenges of how — and when — to reopen the Shubert. As it has for the past year, the theater is following state guidelines, which so far has mandated that the stage stays dark. If infection rates fall and vaccination rates rise, it’s tentatively conceivable that the theater might be able to have shows in the fall, though at the moment McDonald is careful “not to put things in pen. It is still up in the air.”
In addition to the strictures of state protocols, the economics of putting on a show dictate that “It’s too difficult to do if we can’t do it at full capacity,” McDonald said. And bringing an audience back to a full Shubert is about putting in place the safety protocols and assurances so that audiences feel good about coming to a sold-out show. McDonald has begun by talking with staff about safety protocols. “What can we do to continue that and beef it up? I want to make that when we receive guests, we are receiving them in the safest possible environment. They have to feel comfortable and know that we’re taking every precaution.”
“As a theatergoer, you know that it’s almost impossible to never hear someone cough,” he added. That cough now “means something different. It can be a little nerve-racking.”
McDonald also is assessing how the Shubert fits into the national constellation of theaters. Unlike theaters on Broadway, “we are not dependent of tourists from outside the country to sustain us,” he said, saying that Broadway theaters depend on filling about 60 percent of their seats with visitors from other countries — an impossibility until travel restrictions are lifted. On the other hand, as a theater that stages touring companies, “we need that content on Broadway in order to continue to provide content to our community.” McDonald is also cognizant of the way the Shubert fits into New Haven’s and the region’s theater scene.
“We all need one another,” he said. “We all have never experienced such a pause, as a collective whole, before…. No one could forsee how something like this could affect everything we know.”
But McDonald takes heart in the way the Shubert already had changed its practices in response to the pandemic, continuing to run summer programs and holding virtual fundraisers that also involved many downtown New Haven restaurants. “Theater takes so long sometimes to adapt and catch up,” he said. The Shubert “was forced to take the plunge or be left behind. I’m glad they had the wherewithal and the foresight to provide content to the community and also to help it at the same time.”
“It’s in tune to the community and wants to be part of it,” he said, “and help it in any way it can.”
Congrats to McDonald! I like his thinking. New strategies do need to be in place. Economically not everyone can afford the theater but most people that fast would love to attend a performance. going virtual and allowing people to buy a cheaper ticket and watch online not only would allow the expansion of it's audience, but it would also be considering people that are deaf and would need to read a screen with subtitles, or someone that's in a hospital bed or a completely unable to get to the theater physically they would be able to participate, same with visually impaired. This would be more inclusive of disabilities and economic ranges. Bravo.