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No Free Night of Theater in D.C. this year
A question during today's chat led us to an interesting piece of news: While last year, the nationwide Free Night of Theater provided gratis tickets to see Shakespeare Theatre Company's "The Alchemist" and Synetic's "Dracula," this year's program won't offer any Washington productions at all. According to Theatre Communications Group, the organization that co-produces FNOT, the reason is limited staffing. There are still options to see free plays in Baltimore and Annapolis, however, and tickets are up for grabs as of Tuesday. See the Free Night of Theater Web site for more information.
But this got me thinking -- is this a huge loss? For every person who got free tickets to see Signature Theatre's "Showboat," it seemed like there were five people up in arms, frustrated because the Web site didn't work or the tickets ran out too quickly. Plus, there are so many pay-what-you-can performances now, it seems like there is an ever-expanding list of options for seeing affordable quality theater.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
-- Stephanie Merry
By
Stephanie Merry
| September 23, 2010; 2:33 PM ET
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Theater
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Posted by: outsider8 | September 24, 2010 9:57 AM | Report abuse
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A media person who sees nearly everything for free, is not concerned about the lack of free options in DC for the public on free theater night. Thanks Stephanie. Yes, there are pay what you can options on other nights, but what would be wrong with one more. As for the organizer's "Limited Staffing" excuse--don't many theatres ask for volunteers to usher on many nights.