Cash-strapped Theater to Run Live Commercials

Starting in February, theater-goers settling in for a performance of a play by Goethe, Schiller or Brecht at the Kammerspiele Theater will have to first sit through a series of live-action ads, aimed to get them to buy that new washing machine, chocolate or deodorant.

Purists might scream that crass commercialism is invading the rarified world of the theater, but the Kammerspiele's director, Dieter Wedel, says he's just facing reality. His theater needs cash, and ads are one way to get it.

"We have to earn around half of our budget ourselves," he said. "Sponsorship for productions is hard to get which is why I came up with the idea to 'air' adverts before performances."

A theatrical twist

But he doesn't want to simply put up a video screen and show the run-of-the-mill advertising fodder one sees on TV. His vision is to have live actors go up on stage and use their thespian talents to enact mini dramas that also just so happen to be plugging a product.

"The dialogues could be as exciting as Shakespeare or Chekhov. And it could even be possible to have updates each week," he said.

The theater plans to run its playhouse promotions three evenings a week, either before or after the play, so they won't have to interrupt the performance itself.

Wedel said he is willing to direct the ads, if asked, but added that businesses could pick the actors they wanted themselves and produce their own spots if they want creative control. He's also relaxed about what companies try to sell.

"Anything goes," he said.

How the public responds to ads is anyone's guess. There is one distinct disadvantage for theater-goers faced with the new staged ads -- they can't use the remote to zap to a different channel until the program comes back on.