Hope for Off-Off-Broadway: How The Tank Is Defying the Odds

Rumors of the death of off-off-Broadway have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (the organizing entity, such that there is one, of off-off-Broadway companies) will tell you it has more members than it did twenty years ago. However, there is no doubt that things feel dire. We’ve lost dedicated venues, hard-fought pay battles have led to smaller cast sizes, and places are presenting less. But there is hope out there and some of that hope comes from The Tank, an off-off-Broadway house that is still hosting 350-400 distinct works per year. In an age when many well-known theater companies are operating in a deficit, The Tank is consistently in the black. And Tank Artistic Director Meghan Finn is now trying to use The Tank model to help other venues through a recently launched initiative called RE/VENUE NYC.

“The goal is to have that energy where you have people working and going to see things—that energy we have at The Tank,” Finn said. “We need to be cultivating that because it's bizarrely dwindling away.”

The Tank succeeds in large part because it spends so little. The operating budget for this year is approximately $1.7 million. Most of the things that run at The Tank are essentially self-produced by outside producers (whether that is an artist, or a non-profit, or a commercial producer). In that way it is unfair to compare it to most other theater companies—it is doing a completely different thing. The Tank has two main programs: a “Core Production” program and “The Tank Presents.” Neither involves The Tank fully producing a show. A Tank Core Production is a show co-produced by The Tank. These shows can be chosen from the open submission system, but they tend to be by artists and companies The Tank knows. The Tank puts some money into them, offers more development space and services, allows them to have a greater static design, works with an outside press agent to promote them, and typically gives them a longer run. There are ten this season. The rest of the time The Tank is filling its two theaters (one 56-seat, one 98-seat) with new performing arts works that it is essentially simply hosting rent-free.

“Everything is lightly curated,” Finn explained, adding that everything is selected by either her or Director of Artistic Development Johnny G. Lloyd.

The form to submit new works to The Tank is on The Tank website and the instructions are very easy to follow. The Presents model involves very short runs. The Tank provides free theater space, equipment, and up to 12 hours of rehearsal space, as well as covering liability and volunteer insurance, printing programs, running the front of house, providing a page on The Tank website from which to sell tickets—basically all the nuts and bolts of what you need. Finn, and others on the team, will also provide guidance if needed.

In return, The Tank takes a tiny bit up front to guarantee payment for the artists and then operates on a 50/50 box office split. (59E59 Theaters is another theater offering a similar deal. Because of a $10 million grant received earlier this year, theater companies will be able to use the company’s three performance spaces and equipment without incurring rental costs through 2025. But the model is different, as 59E59 is home to a number of theater companies and programs, and opens 30-plus productions annually, instead of hundreds of mountings. Additionally, the split works differently: companies receive 100% of the box office once a certain amount is netted.)

At The Tank, usually something is going on in each of its theaters at both 7pm and 9:30pm. Ticket costs are low so the theater is only taking in a tiny bit of money at a time, but it’s a lot of small sums of money. It’s a volume business. Think of a grassroots political campaign. The percentage of earned income compared to contributed of a New York non-profit theater tends to be less than 50%. Last year, Finn said The Tank earned 40% of its budget from the box office and another 10% from its low-cost rental ($15-50 an hour) of its rehearsal spaces, thereby only needing 50% to come from contributed income.  

“Part the luxury of more programming is we can take a risk because every show doesn't need to be a hit,” Finn stated. “We want it to be obviously, but it doesn’t need to be.”

There may of course be a risk to the artist but, financially, it can be relatively minimal depending on cast size and other production costs (beyond the supplied equipment). The Fringe Festival got heat for just how much it cost to put on a show there because of expectations regarding production values. The Tank expects most of what it presents to be more "quick and dirty," as Finn put it, so money can in fact be made.

“If you sell out a $20 ticket in the 98-seat theater, you’re leaving with just under $1000,” Finn said. “If you had a six-show run, you'd make almost $6000. If you wanted to rent that space—a 98-seat proscenium theater on 36th street—you’d have to spend like $5-6k for it to start. In our view, our model represents the most earning potential for an artist trying to present their work. When you're starting out, that’s what you've got to do. You’ve got to find a way to self-produce and that's not accessible for people who can't afford thousands of dollars in rental costs right off the bat.”

Indeed, several other non-profit theaters that are operating at a profit charge significant sums for theater rentals. This keeps the theater open, which is great, but does not reduce economic barriers for artists.

Many of The Tank offerings are never heard from again, but it still often serves as a launching pad for artists. And some shows do move on—for example, the play Invasive Species began life as a Tank Presents offering, was extended, and transferred to the Vineyard last season. Additionally, from a cultural perspective, we need things to get on their feet. We need to have things for audience members to see when they decide at 8pm they are in the mood to experience art. We need to nurture artists. We need to offer a way for writers and directors to hone their craft without maxing out every single credit card they can possibly obtain. We need to keep theaters open for these purposes. That is what Finn is hoping RE/VENUE NYC will help do.

Helen Shaw opened up her New Yorker reviews last week by writing: “Desperation-level real-estate pressures are pushing established theatre companies out of spaces that have long been part of the city’s fabric[.]” Because it’s becoming increasingly hard for venues to stay operational as theater spaces. But, according to Finn, The Tank, which pays rent of about $30,000 a month for its space, had a $70,000 month in August, so they must be doing something right. With RE/VENUE NYC, she is endeavoring to sort of franchise The Tank model.

“We’re taking The Tank’s model and using it as a pop-up to replace lost rental revenue for other theaters for a finite amount of time,” Finn said. “People look at what we do and they're like: ‘Oh, that looks so hard. There's so many shows. How do you possibly do that?’ And it's because we've been around for 21 years and we have a lot of systems in place to get a high volume of artists through. We can replicate those, do it on a pop-up basis with a partner theater, use the ticket split model, generate revenue for that theater, get a bunch of artists maybe performing in their lobby, or maybe on stage or in a rehearsal studio. This will generate money for the artists and the theater.”

A concern among venues of putting anything in their spaces has always involved reputation, but in this case RE/VENUE NYC holds the aesthetic risk. It is “RE/VENUE at X Theater.” Recently there were a series of RE/VENUE offerings at The Paradise Factory. There will soon be a popup at the WP Theater. Finn said she has a handful of other theaters interested as well.

After the event, RE/VENUE provides audience information to the partner theater for mailing list purposes, so, hopefully, audience members will return to the space for non-RE/VENUE offerings. Therefore, it is not only providing immediate extra income to the venue, as the spaces would have been empty if not for these drop-in performances, but also providing hope for increased future revenue. All while giving artists a credit.

I admittedly don’t see as much off-off-Broadway as some other theater journalists—if given the option of being at La MaMa or Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now, I’m going to choose the latter. But I care deeply about the off-off-Broadway landscape. Despite seeing almost every Broadway show of the last two decades, two of the best things I’ve ever seen are still A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant (at The Tank, in its old 42nd Street location) and Heddatron, both directed by future Tony winner Alex Timbers. I’m not sure even with free space we’d be likely to see either of them premiering with those runs today, as actor pay has also gone up and each had around 10 people onstage, but I know for sure we won’t see anything similar if we don’t support off-off-Broadway. It is a part of New York culture. It is a part of artistic development. It is a part of audience development.

Finn said she doesn’t see anything The Tank or RE/VENUE NYC does as proprietary. She’d love if venues took the contract templates and onboarding steps provided and run one or two-off shows on their own. Is an artist putting on a show in a lobby ideal? No. But it’s a way to get work seen and generate revenue for venues and artists. That is what we should all want.