Sumana directed me to a conversation at Parabasis, which I have excerpted below, about monologuist Mike Daisey‘s piece, “How Theater Failed America,” which discusses, among other things, the casting system which I have been part of perpetuating in NYC this week. (Although our show has about half its actors local, the other half from New York.)

“what Daisey essentially says (And I agree) is that the original regional theater model of rep companies has basically devolved into a system in which theaters import all of their artists from other places (mainly New York) and put on shows. […] No one in the communities they perform for has any real connection to the work they’re doing because the casts and crews are these anonymous interchangeable people who rarely come back and with whom you have no connection.”

Wicked Stage reaction, and thoughts on theater and community.

Theatre Ideas reaction: “I think the freelance system of doing theatre, where an artistic team is put together piecemeal for each project through auditions and interviews, is artistically and economically bankrupt. It turns the creation of art into a crap shoot, and denies the experience of every other group art form in existence which shows that artists who work together over time create better work. […] I think that the only way live theatre is viable, both economically and artistically, is in the form of semi-permanent companies or “tribes.” ”