JIM HENDRICKS: Keeping Brünnhilde off the stage

One thing that has been reinforced for me as I’ve worked on some previews of upcoming performing arts organizations is that money’s tight — as it is for all of us — and the groups are trying to be innovative in finding ways to generate the funds they need to continue.

It’s not a case of — to keep with the fine arts theme here — the proverbial Fat Lady singing, but I do get the impression that she’s warming up.

If Herald columnist Carlton Fletcher were writing about this, he probably would’ve started with a lyric from a Chicago song, the one about finding out how much you’ve lost a little too late.

That’s what we’re going to be facing at some point. Not right now, not just yet, but some day.

Over the last couple of weekends, we had previews in our SouthView features section on the coming seasons for the Albany Chorale and Theatre Albany. This Sunday, we’ll take a look at the Albany Symphony Orchestra’s coming season.

There’s a common thread in all three. Whether through ticket pricing or venues, each is trying to reach more people, both here and in the Southwest Georgia region.

The symphony, for instance, will have two Sunday matinees out of town — one in Tifton, one in Bainbridge — after two of its Saturday night performances in the Albany Municipal Auditorium, which, I feel I need to mention, is a tremendous place to experience a performance of any kind. The auditorium has an elegance and atmosphere about it that is second to none.

The Albany Chorale, which ventured to Leesburg for a concert last season, has all of its programs this season in Albany — some at new venues — but it also will join with other choral groups and the symphony when the orchestra performs in Tifton this spring.

Theatre Albany, which earlier this year opened a GoFundMe page to help generate dollars, has all of its performances set for the theater on Pine Avenue, but it took an encore performance of “Driving Miss Daisy” to the Rylander Theatre in Americus last season and this season has adopted a flex package for its season tickets, which are being sold at a discounted rate through Monday.

Likewise, the symphony has restructured its ticket pricing in hopes of attracting more people to its audiences.

That’s what it all boils down to — people in seats.

A music director can come up with the most marvelous of programs. A community theater can perform the world premiere of a new play — as Theatre Albany will do this October — but none of that matters if there are no people in the seats to experience it.

And without enough people in the seats, sooner or later, depending on the cost of producing a play or a concert, it’s possible that a curtain will fall a final time, that a last encore will be sung, that a baton will be laid down for good.

If that were to happen because the performances were subpar, then fine. But I’ve never run into anyone who attended a performance by any of these groups who didn’t come out absolutely impressed.

Most problems have complicated solutions. That’s not the case here. Here, the solution is simple.

Just buy a ticket.

None of these arts organizations would be stressing over aspects that don’t involve the entertaining of their audiences if enough season and single-event tickets were being sold.

We — and I include myself in this “we” — just don’t go to these shows and concerts enough. Some don’t go at all.

It’s easier to sit at home and be mindnumbingly electronically entertained with lowest-common-denominator programming like everybody else than to go out and experience a live event that always — always — is unique.

Is that unique live entertainment worth saving? That’s up to you and me. We’ll decide.

Right now, Brünnhilde’s still off-stage. But if we don’t get out and support these organizations, eventually the aria will start and we’ll realize — a little too late — that the show, indeed, is about to end.

Email Jim Hendricks at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_JHendricks on Twitter.