Here is my answer to one of the questions my school asked me.

The value and survival of theater as a performing art is constantly in question. What value do you ascribe to live theater? Is this value related to its “market value”? In what ways, if any, is theater a “service” rather than a “product”?

I value theater's life. In our current culture of speed, immediate satisfaction, technological isolation, and submissive consumption, theater slows down, unites, and demands active participation of the community it occurs within. Anne Bogart in And Then You Act says, "In the United States, we are the targets of mass distraction. We are the objects of constant flattery and manufactured desire. I believe that the only possible resistance to a culture of banality is quality." Quality theatre is the antidote for my culture. Quality theatre is not a consumption, it is a participation. It is something created between the audience and the performers. It is alive. I believe live performance is an antidote to the opiates of our culture (i.e. television, movies, internet, media, etc). Theatre creates physical metaphors and poetry that the audience must participate in.

Theater is a service instead of a product when its intention is to serve instead of sell.