Blast: Want and Need

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:58:42 -0400

Published in Theatre Ideas on April 20, 2008:

At the end of the NY Times article on the Off-Off-Broadway theatre numbers, Paul Bargetto, the artistic director of East River Commedia, boggles his own mind with what he apparently thinks is a rhetorical question:

“‘You start to show people the numbers involved here,’ he said. ‘What city wouldn’t want to have 350 to 400 not-for-profit theater companies?'”

A better question might be: What city needs 350 to 400 not-for-profit companies? I suggest a quick read of Garret Hardin’s “The Tragedy of the Commons”, which discusses how finite resources (in this case, the theatregoing crowd) can be depleted through overuse, as an indirect response to Bargetto’s question. Or perhaps a basic economics text about overcrowded markets (see “marginal benefit,” “excess supply,” and “allocative function of price.") [Or, perhaps, Blue Ocean Strategy]

Blast from the Past on Wond'ring Aloud

Blast: Want and Need