The lights dim as a hush falls over the crowd; the show is about to begin.

No, it’s not a movie. It’s live theater and in an age of movies, DVDs, television and even podcasts, theater arts are being cast aside. Theaters are losing revenue and patrons. And we’re not just talking about the small, independently run black box theater down the street. Even nationally known, prominent companies are struggling.

In an attempt to expose the TV addict to higher culture and a slowly dying art, the Metropolitan Opera started broadcasting performances live in December and will continue through May including 20 radio and 100 television broadcasts. Opera patrons are aging and aren’t being replaced by new, younger audience members. The Save the Met Broadcast series is trying to encourage a younger demographic to experience live entertainment.

Now I know watching theater on TV sounds a bit oxymoronic. Part of the magic is surely the tangibility and the fact that live people are acting right in front of your face — no time lapse, no screens, no re-dos.

But I also understand that people like the familiar and they like television, so if witnessing live performances via the TV gets even one person interested in buying tickets and sitting in the theater, then by all means, broadcast away.

Luckily, Athens is rife with performances— theatrical, musical and otherwise— that are accessible and relatively inexpensive for students and the community.

The OU School of Music plays host to concerts nearly every week. For instance, at 8 p.m. this Friday the Wind Ensemble Chamber Music will perform at the School of Music Recital Hall. It’s free, open to the public and good for the soul. Why then do students so often pass up opportunities like this one?

Mostly it’s due to lack of knowledge that the events are even happening. But OU has a brilliant solution to this problem. On the ohio.edu/students Web site is a link to “Dates and Calendars” in the right corner. Chose the fine arts calendar to see what’s going on. It only takes two seconds, and you might be surprised at the interesting, inexpensive shows happening around campus and around town.

So take some time to enjoy one of these or any of the theatrical extravaganzas in Athens:

• Man of La Mancha — 8 p.m. tomorrow in the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium; $10 students, $18 senior, $20 generalSee the musical adaptation of Cervantes’ masterpiece Don Quixote as part of the Performing Art Series at OU.

• Closer — 8 p.m Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday in the theater in new Baker; $3 or $1 with a non-perishable donation to Athens Food Bank See the play that inspired the award-winning film performed by OU students.

• Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme — Feb. 7-10 and 14-17 at 8 p.m. in the Baker Theater in Kantner Hall; $12 students $14 general presented by the School of TheaterThis show is about men from Ulster who enlist during WWI to keep their land in the hands of the British.