Saturday, February 09, 2008

Seattlest: Can't Miss It:

We went to see Mike Daisey's How Theater Failed America at CHAC last night, and if you're interested at all in the fate of live theater, check it out.

From gorgeous new theaters standing empty as cathedrals, to “successful” working actors traveling like migrant farmhands, to an arts culture unwilling to speak or listen to its own nation, Daisey takes stock of the dystopian state of theater in America: a shrinking world with smaller audiences every year.

It's a brand-new show and less polished than his Monopoly!, but it has his anarchic sense of humor, volcanic eruptions, unlikely reminiscences, and corporate critique in spades. It also contains an insider's account of "garage" theater in Seattle in the '90s and how not to introduce children to the work of Jean Genet.

6:17 PM