Hard Times Two

Please be sure to read the comments from both Josh and Mike Daisey on the previous post. They both raise some really great points. I want address two here.

First is the issue of training. A theatre offering training to its local actor pool can be a good long-term strategy towards building a more robust stable of local talent to hire.  But it has to come with actually hiring people as well or else you end up in the situation where people move away because they feel they have to go to New York (or Chicago or LA) to continue to grow as artists.  Also, having seen theatre in Seattle and known a lot of theatre artists who either are or were from there, I too chafe at the idea that what Seattle's local artists need first and foremost is more training. There are other cities I've been to that don't have a lot of local talent, and there offering training programs makes a lot of sense... you're building the next generation of actors and also can provide teaching jobs that can help local artists make the rent. But that's not the situation in Seattle as far as I can tell. I doubt the reason Heidi Schreck moved to NY was so she could take more classes.

Speaking of which...  Josh lists in his comment how many NYC theatre powerhouses are Seattle emigres. Which goes back to one of the reasons why NYC has such a rich and deep talent base. In an ideal world, the talent base in NYC would be less rich and less deep because more people could find steady work in other cities that they'd prefer to live in. As it is, we have an overpopulated system here that is both not active enough to provide enough work for all the talented folk who live here and also overabundant as far as audiences are concerned. This leads to a near-Malthusian level of scarcity w/r/t to resources. (In other words, the Indie Theatre issues outlined here are directly related to the issues discussed in this post and in HTFA and in other regional theatre circles).

Comments

[Josh]

Also, it should be noted that Seattle already has excellent theater training. The program at UW is great. Also Cornish College of the Arts is one of the most top notch (and really one of the only) training grounds for experimental and/or otherwise original theater in the country. I know because I've been working steadily since graduation with artists from OTHER programs and I can tell the difference.

So, again... suck it, jerks!