The Trump administration recently cut around $207 million from the National Endowment for the Arts, known as NEA. That means grants that had already been awarded to theaters and theater companies went away.
Congress is also considering further cuts to arts funding — an appropriations bill in a U.S. House committee recommends 35% cuts to both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Among the theaters affected by the canceling of NEA grants is Childsplay Theatre, based in Tempe. It had gotten a $25,000 grant to put on a show called "JSonic and The Unknown," which is set to open the company’s season in September.
Dwayne Hartford, artistic director at Childsplay, says other programs could also be affected in the not-too-distant future, including programs both in and after school, as well as research into the efficacy of using creative drama in the classroom.
Hartford joined The Show to talk about it.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: And Dwayne, it sounds like uncertainty is kind of the word to describe this. You're certain you've lost the $25,000 but the rest of it, there could be more cuts, but if there are, you don't know how much and you don't know when they would happen.
DWAYNE HARTFORD: Exactly. And so it's kind of hard to run a business. It's kind of hard to hire teachers, and then turn around and tell them that you don't have work for them. There's no way to plan anything. We have a budget for the year, we're just starting our new fiscal year. And everything's just a big question mark.
BRODIE: So how do you try to do that? How do you try to plan for that many unknowns?
HARTFORD: I'm laughing because you can't. You, you have to, certainly have contingencies, which we do and we're, we're looking at and we're developing. But we also, we're not going to be in the not-for-profit arts business without being optimists. And so we have to believe that somehow the right thing will happen eventually.
And yes, we're one company and there are many other companies, but the schools, I can't imagine what it must be like for the schools, and going into this and not knowing what they're gonna be able to offer.
BRODIE: What kinds of conversations have you been having with schools about not only what they can do, but what you might be able to do to help them in terms of, you know, after school care or even having them come to shows.
HARTFORD: It's all up in the air right now, of course, a lot of this has happened over the summer and so we haven't a lot of schools are out still. So, but we're saying to each other, we want to do this, we want this to happen, and let's hope it will and. At the same time we can't commit to anything.
BRODIE: Are there other sources of revenue that you can look to? I mean, I assume you don't want to be charging hundreds of dollars for your tickets, you know, to make up for the lost revenue. So are there other places you can look to make at least some of this up?
HARTFORD: Yes and no. Certainly, we can go out into the philanthropy field and ask individual donors, foundations for additional help, and we certainly are leaning on our friends and we have some very generous donors, but it's an unsure time all around.
And for a lot of foundations and individuals, they're thinking about the social safety net. So they're holding back a little bit on arts funding. It's a tricky time. So, we're gonna be there as long as we can be and hope for the best and hope that we'll come out the other side. We will. I know we will. It's just going to be an interesting time. It continues to be interesting times until then.
BRODIE: One is it possible that as you emerge from the other side, whatever that might look like, that Childsplay might just look different than it does now?
HARTFORD: Absolutely. And we have lots of conversations about that and talk about where we might be going and what does the community need? We'll figure it out. We'll be here, but we might look differently, we might be smaller. I hope not, but …
BRODIE: You never know, right?
HARTFORD: You, you don't know, and it's a yeah, strange times.
BRODIE: Well, is there a chance that other things that Childsplay does could also be impacted? I mean, you obviously have classes and academies and other, you know, summer camps, things like that, like, might you have to shift money around to keep, for example, the after school programs going or the theater in the school programs like do you have to at some point make a determination. OK, it's kind of like picking your favorite child as a parent, right? Like this program, we love them all, but this program maybe has more of an impact, so we gotta make sure this one gets funded, that means maybe this one doesn't.
HARTFORD: Possibly. Those are all questions that we'll be asking. Our academy programs do very well. Our after school programs and our residency programs, which are the way we do it, it's separate from our academy. They're big. We employ a lot of teaching artists. And we hope that that continues, it's important, it's great work, and it's really making a huge impact. But sure, if the money is not there, if the schools can't pay for it, it will go away.
BRODIE: So you mentioned the show “JSonic and The Unknown,” which is set to, as you say, debut not that long from now, just, you know, a little more than September, a little more than a month. Is that still on track? Like what stage of production were you in when you had this money taken away?
HARTFORD: We were well into the design process. The actors aren't on contract yet, but we've cast them and all the designers and the director, choreographer. And all that, so we're committed to doing this show. “JSonic and The Unknown” is part of a national project called the BIPOC Superheroes Project. All of us felt very strongly that this needed to happen. So we're going forward, we're having to look for money elsewhere, we're having to, you know, push money around and do a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but it's moving forward. This is a partnership with Phoenix College. And we didn't want to back away from that partnership, and so, it's happening. It just might hurt a little bit more, but that's OK.
BRODIE: You mentioned that to do what you do, you have to be an optimist. What gives you optimism right now that things at Childsplay will be OK?
HARTFORD: Because I believe we're needed, I believe that what we do, for young people and for families and for schools, is vital. Theater has been around for 3,000 years. Because it serves a purpose. And when you bring people together, an audience and performers together live in one room or outside in one area, and those actors are telling a story to the audience, something happens there that you can't replicate in a movie theater or anywhere else. It is that basic human need to tell stories. It's how we learn, it's how we understand each other.
Of course, empathy is such a big thing and it's part of what we do for young people, help them to understand the concept of empathy. They understand the idea of looking at a situation from another point of view.
Also at the same time, seeing your story on stage and saying, hey, I understand that, that's that's me. And that pride that comes with that. So I know there will always be theater. What it looks like and how we get there are up in the air, but I'm optimistic that we'll be here. Coming up in two years will be our 50th anniversary. And I have no reason not to think that Childsplay won't be here for 50 more.
