Every year, the Theater Communications Group publishes the results of an economic survey. Every year, people fight over whether the results confirm or refute the various fears, feuds, and controversies banging around theater-land. A sample:

1. Remember when the NEA almost didn't get stimulus money and art advocates hollered that art is work and contributes to the economy?

The art advocates were right: In 2008, nonprofit theaters contributed $1.9 billion to the economy in payments of goods, services, and employee salaries.

2. Remember when Mike Daisey wrote:

Not everyone lost out with the removal of artists from the premises. Arts administrators flourished as the increasingly complex corporate infrastructure grew. Literary departments have blossomed over the last few decades, despite massive declines in the production of new work. Marketing and fundraising departments in regional theaters have grown hugely, replacing the artists who once worked there, raising millions of dollars from audiences that are growing smaller, older, and wealthier. It's not such a bad time to start a career in the theater, provided you don't want to actually make any theater.

The numbers do and don't agree with him. One survey question shows that the majority of theater employees have "artistic" jobs: 63% artistic, 26% technical, and only 11% administrative.

Another shows that expenses saw double-digit growth—in excess of inflation—from 2004 to 2008 in all areas except artistic payroll and royalties. One more: 56% of theaters' expenses go to labor compensation (union and non-union salaries, benefits, and royalties for playwrights).

So: There are plenty artists, who cost the theaters plenty of money, but their wages haven't risen as quickly as other costs.

3. Theaters are going broke: Fifty-five percent of theaters ended 2008 in the red. Earned income paid for 55.1% of expenses, contributed income paid for 44.4%, and total income—on average—fell short by 0.5%.

4. People still want to see theater, but the subscription model is dying: Subscribers fell (some of them into the grave) by 10% in the last five years but single-ticket income jumped 18.3% (adjusting for inflation) and overall attendance was 1.9% higher than in 2004.

If you're hungry for more theater statistics, a) you've got problems and b) read them here.