Nonprofit theaters are incubators for new theater

Regional theaters help develop shows for Broadway

Theaters like the La Jolla Playhouse often act as testing grounds for Broadway, allowing audiences to witness groundbreaking world premieres before they hit the Great White Way.

The term ‘angel investor’ is thought to have originated with Broadway plays

The first so-called angel investors funded theatrical productions. Now, angels invest in startups at an early stage, hoping their investment will pay off in the future.

Many shows close without earning a profit

Broadway is a tough market, and a show closing early is relatively common, especially in the winter: Between December 2024 and February 2025, 17 shows closed. It's more than just low ticket sales: Broadway shows face a number of hurdles to success, including stop clauses and bad reviews.

The best Broadway oral histories

What do you get when you combine elite performers, spectacular sets, and tons of rehearsal time? Maybe an award-winning show, but definitely drama. This list of Broadway-based oral histories spans from RENT’s groundbreaking depiction of the AIDS crisis to the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on live theater. There’s even a retelling of how TikTok helped bring a musical version of Ratatouille to the stage for a one-night-only streaming exclusive.

The Ford Foundation helped expand America’s regional theater

In 1961, the philanthropic arm of Henry Ford’s massive empire seeded an initial grant of $9M to fund regional theaters around the United States. This was done to replicate the repertory theaters throughout Europe.

Broadway grosses over $1B annually

The famous but relatively small geographic area is responsible for a relatively enormous economy, thanks to high demand and high ticket prices.

Off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway are about more than location

A Broadway theater is located in Manhattan and seats more than 500 people. Off-Broadway theaters have 100 to 499 seats, while off-off-Broadway theaters house up to 100.

Film festivals are where independent projects find studios

Film festivals are incubators for the movie industry, providing smaller films and their producers with opportunities to screen in front of live audiences, as well as potential investors who may offer wider distribution.

Hear Lin-Manuel Miranda explain the origins of his musical 'Hamilton'

In this interview, Lin-Manuel Miranda describes how discovering Alexander Hamilton's biography led him to the project—and how hip-hop's rhythm, rivalry, and storytelling power felt uniquely suited to the nation's founding era.

For-profit schools are not beholden to educational missions

While many private schools are nonprofit organizations, beholden to their missions and boards, some are for-profit entities owned by private individuals or corporations. In some cases, these institutions offer substandard courses and award unaccredited degrees.

One critic argues opera needs a new business plan

Christos Makridis, a labor economist at Arizona State University, argues that the public has an appetite for the art form, but that the industry's business model is dated, relying too heavily on philanthropy and aging season ticket holders rather than embracing innovation.

Nonprofit VC funds invest in startups, but have donors instead of LPs

Examples include Andreessen Horowitz’s TxO (Talent x Opportunity) Initiative and Fifth Star Funds, which allows donors to write “Friends & Family” checks for Black tech founders.

Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton founded New York City's first private orphanage

Schuyler Hamilton, Alexander's wife for 24 years, continued telling his story after his death. She devoted decades to her own work—cofounding New York's first private orphanage, leading charitable fundraising, and becoming a prominent advocate for education and social welfare in the early republic.

What it means to be an opening act

Most people assume opening for a major act will propel a smaller artist's career. While that can be the case, this academic study from a Drexel University professor offers some objective data that suggests mixed results. In short, there's no guarantee that an opening slot on a big tour will enhance an artist's popularity—or their income.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

‘Hamlet’ is a widely produced show, including a famous performance at one prison

Rehabilitation of convicted violent criminals in Missouri’s Eastern Correctional Center included performances of “Hamlet,” one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays.

Netflix's original movies are intended to be in the background

Netflix's original content follows "taste clusters," those wildly specific tags for content, like "cerebral Southwestern murder mystery." The low-budget films and shows designed for these genre buckets are written with abundant exposition to remind casual viewers where they are in the story.

Comic-Con is a nonprofit organization

San Diego Comic‑Con International launched in 1970 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit aimed at promoting public appreciation for comics and related arts. All proceeds fund programming such as Comic‑Con, WonderCon, and the Comic‑Con Museum.

NASA and SpaceX combine public support and funding with private enterprise

Rather than competitors, SpaceX and NASA are mutually beneficial collaborators. Without NASA contracts, SpaceX may have run out of funding, and without the low-cost tech of SpaceX, NASA may have been left without a US-based launch system.

'SNL' began as a low-budget replacement for reruns of 'The Tonight Show'

Johnny Carson, host of "The Tonight Show," asked NBC to move his reruns to weeknights instead of weekends. That freed up a weekend slot and the network decided to try a new live show.

Francis Ford Coppola's first musical led him to bankruptcy

The ambitious (and expensive) 1981 movie musical had a budget of $26M, but earned under $1M at the box office. The flop led to a financially difficult period for the renowned director, who declared bankruptcy three times in the decade following the movie's release.

How a Philadelphia soup kitchen taught business students about ethical decision-making

As the St. Francis Inn—a Philadelphia soup kitchen—struggled with decisions about moving its operations to serve more people, a management professor at St. Joseph's University realized his students might have been able to help. Business students used ethical decision-making frameworks to help the soup kitchen serve more people and attract more volunteers.

Contemporary operas explore topics like gun violence

Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s 2021 opera "Innocence" explores the aftermath of a school shooting. Featuring traditional operatic singing in a modern setting, this story makes the classic art form particularly relevant to today's audience.

The Six Gallery, and San Francisco at large, helped the Beats grow

The Six Gallery was located in the “Harlem of the West,” where jazz musicians, filmmakers, painters and poets experimented with no regard for commercial success. “If Ginsberg had broken new ground,” historian Rebecca Solnit writes, “the Six had made it possible to go public with it.”

At their peak, some believed NFT royalties could create a new income source for artists

Non-fungible tokens’ role in the art world is evolving with experiments such as automated NFT royalties that generate income when an NFT is resold.

Nonprofits strive to replant the Amazon and slow global warming

This article explores the efforts of nonprofit organizations like Rioterra in reforesting the Brazilian Amazon to mitigate climate change. Their goal is enormous: reforest an area twice the size of Germany, costing over 20 billion dollars. In order...

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Before the current East Wing ballroom project, only two White House renovations in the past 100 years cost more than $10M.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.