Lily Janiak's article on theaters in this area, "Creative pivot eyed as subscriptions plummet," appeared in today's paper.  

https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/bay-area-theater-subscription-18197863

 I wrote to her to thank her for this.

Dear Lily Janiak,

Your article on the SF Playhouse as an outlier in the sense of their having kept their subscriptions steady between July 2019 and this past July really resonated with me, a subscriber.  I love their "Empathy Gym" words in the room we go in an hour before performances, and it's fun to make fools of ourselves posing with the life-size chorus line or whatever they have there to represent the present show.

For years the staff has been very responsive to special needs.  The person I subscribe with needs an aisle seat, and they never make us feel that any special request like that is annoying.  They really do have that "special sauce" someone refers to in your article, and they exude warmth.  Bill English also writes very thoughtful pieces for the playbill, and the person who introduces each performance (maybe you know her name; I can't remember) does it with humor while reminding us how important it is to support live theater.   

I have to admit that when I get the survey asking, among other things, whether the play added to my understanding of people who are different from me, I sometimes check no, but many times the plays do add that dimension.  

A former head of the Theater Department at CCSF (a department now decimated, I think) said that the SF Playhouse was his favorite one in the area.  It's mine too.

Thank you for caring about theaters whether they're my favorite or not!  The SF Chronicle is very lucky to have you.

Tina Martin