No, the “free market” does not deliver theatre to every corner of the U.S. It took the NEA to do that – and it took theatre people to agitate for an NEA in the first place. “Theatre artists and administrators from all over the U.S. knew firsthand that the absence of non-commercial funding was preventing theatre from reaching audiences who had no access to professional theatres. Theatre practitioners, critics, and leaders were determined to change that—and to put theatre into the national conversation.”