Olson Vs. Daisey

I highly recommend that folks click on over to Mike Daisey's place to read a letter that Todd Olson from American Stage Theatre Company sent  American Theatre Magazine re: Daisey's pronouncements on the state of the American Theatre.

It's a long one, and well worth reading, the post is here. I'll just quickly say that London at least in part seems to be responding to things that Mike Daisey isn't really saying.  How Theatre Failed America is not a broadside against theatre administrators, but rather an attack on the values that have come to posses theatre institutions. If anything, i think HTFA shows how a perfectly logical series of gradual decisions on the part of theaters in America has lead to a rather nonsensical, non-functioning current state of affairs.

There are in some cases deep wells of animosity between theatre administrators and theatre artists.  I've certainly been privy to no end of artists rather naive bitching about what percentage of a theater's budget goes to their development staff (or even literary department!) and heard on the other side complaints well... like this one that London Olson (wtf butler?) unfortunately decided to include in his letter: 

Because of the blood, sweat and tears of my staff (again read, “not actors”) we have nearly doubled our subscriptions and our overall attendance has increased 42%, in large part from young and diverse audiences.

and:

With apologies to AEA, when I read Mike’s scoff that, “It's not such a bad time to start a career in the theater, provided you don't want to actually make any theater”, I had an image of going to my development staff and asking them to take a mandatory ten minute break every 80 minutes? Maybe I could supply the Marketing Director with a little cot by his desk? No wait, I’ll tell our Education Director to stop working after she reaches the 34 hour mark else she gets paid overtime. But I digress…

I don't exactly expect Olson-- as self-professed Libertarian-- to be a friend of the Unions, but there is, as Daisey says a kind of "virulent" anti-artist thread running through the letter that's at the very least really unfortunate for an Artistic Director to be espousing.

But just for the record: I've spent the last couple of weeks in the rehearsal room of an Off-Broadway show.  The artists on that show work six days a week, and yes, they take breaks every eighty minutes (for ten minutes) and they get a one hour lunch if you rehearse more than six hours in a day.  Why? because the work they do is quite strenuous physically, vocally, mentally and (i'd argue) spiritually/psychically.  Not that working in an office can't be.  Hell, I think people working in offices should get overtime (or at least comp time) and have better protections too. But that they don't is no reason to get all resentful of the very people who create the work your organization purportedly exists to make.  Of course, one of the ongoing themes of Daisey's advocacy and work lately has been that theatre's increasingly seem to see the making of art as a side project to the ongoing cause of Growing Themselves, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence to bring up.

Comments

[Joshua James]

Do you mean "Olson" when you write "London"? Just curious if I missed something ...

Great exchange, though. Mike fisked him pretty ruthlessly and I have to say, the dude deserved it.

Interesting to read the overall thorough distain for artists up front and out loud from an AD on a public forum ... I mean, I've certainly heard / witnessed it before (in my own experiences and from the occasional hysteric blogger) but this from a person of his position, it's sort of eye-opening, ain't it?

[Ryan Jennings]

Bias...Bigotry...sitting in the back of the bus!!! Are you being hit by fire hoses in Alabama in the '60s or gaining employment acting (or from the words you've chosen, overacting)? Yes actors are underpaid, but lets please be careful with the hyperbole, it is insulting to people who have actually experienced the things you so cavalierly use to represent your situation.

[Joshua James]

Ryan, who used either "bias" or "bigotry" here on this thread? I read through this thing and miss either word being used ...

Nobody's insulting anyone who's experienced true discrimination here ... add to that, bias is a perfectly acceptable word in this context had it been used by either Isaac or I ... it's not the same word as bigotry ...

I believe I described the man's view of one of distain, which I still think is appropriate ... and while I am not an actor, it does seem like you're slurring actors yourself, suggesting that though they may be underpaid, they should be careful on how loud they complain about it because on the struggles minorities went through in the sixties.

They are not the same, it's a false equivalency on your part, really.

One can complain about bias and have it affect your life in a profound way, even if it has nothing to do with racial / sexual / religious discrimination.