For most of my life I lived in New York and other big cities and I came to love theater and film, my two cultural passions There was so much theater in New York, although getting to the theater was often difficult, and the price of theater in New York rose so rapidly I could only afford to go once in a while.
Some of the shows I would love to see – Hamilton, The Book of Mormon, Angels In America – can cost up to $1,000 or more, middle-class and poor people are priced out of Broadway.
When I moved to the country, I thought I was leaving the theater – and many movies – behind.
Our little town is blessed to have Hubbard Hall, an old opera house, but in order to survive, the Hall is turning to educational programs and theater for kids and students, and occasional smaller shows. We have no movie theater.
The surprise for me is that I have seen more excellent theater this year and last than I was ever able to see in New York, and for $60 or $75 a ticket. We have two Equity theater companies within driving distance – the Williamstown, Mass., and Dorset, Vt. Theater Festivals.
Both send plays to Broadway and get some of the best actors in the theater. Both are almost shockingly inexpensive and easy to get to.
We saw our sixth play of the summer tonight, an inventive and surprising and quite wonderful interpretation of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice. It was a great performance, innovative and touching and funny, all at the same time.
The theater in Dorset is well endowed – its a very wealthy town – and small and intimate. They get seasoned actors and we have enjoyed every one of the plays we’ve seen, from one on the pressures on mothers with newborn babies to the stories of African-Americans trapped in bad jobs.
Beyond that, you can park right across the street, maybe 10 yards away, use the bathroom at almost any time, and be out of the theater and on the way home 10 minutes after the final curtain. Bottled water costs $1 bottle and fresh-baked almond cookies are two dollars.
In Williamstown, the theater – it is big and beautifully designed – has a parking lot right behind the theater, it takes a minute or two to get back to our car. There is no parking fee either for Dorset or Williamstown.
The two and a half hour play we saw tonight – a lavish set large and gifted cast – cost $65 each for two seats, center orchestra, on the aisle.
I bought them two weeks before the performance, and when I had to cancel because of a friend’s funeral, I called the Playhouse the morning before the play, somebody answered the phone on the first ring and they gladly moved the tickets to another night, same seats. No charge.
And they were actually friendly.
I am home writing this 35 minutes after the play ended.
We saw four plays at the Williamstown Theater Festival this summer, two at Dorset. We loved every one of them, and we have one more to go – “Ann,” a one-woman play about Ann Richards, the last Democratic Governor of Texas. That one is sold out already, we are going on September 1.
Next year we’re buying a special ticket that gets us into four shows of our choice for a little more than $200 a person.
We also found an Independent Movie Theater in Williamstown, Mass, that we joined for $100 a year for both of us, and it costs $5 a movie. We’ve more than earned that fee back. We park on the street in front of the theater. Then eat Indian or Mexican or Thai food.
In nearby Bennington, Saturday matinees cost $5 for adults at the movie theater there.
Tomorrow, we’re going to see the new Spike Lee movie, BlackKlansman. $10 for the two of us.
People from my other life often asked me with sorrowful voices if I don’t miss culture living in the country.
No, I don’t.
And I don’t miss $40 in parking or $800 tickets either, if I can get them at all.
This is a stereotype, I am delighted to shatter. There is a ton of culture in the country, at least in this part of the country.
I really missed seeing plays in New York as it became too complicated and expensive to go. I missed seeing movies because they were often crowded and too expensive.
I see fine theater all the time again, and every movie I want to see. There is a ton of culture in the country.
