Saturday, June 07, 2008

Trinity Rep’s business model a rarity on national scene - Providence Business News:

Rhode Island theater-goers long have appreciated Providence’s Trinity Repertory Company, though an intense debate taking place in national theater circles suggests they may be luckier than they realize to watch a growing rarity – a true regional company.

The examination of the purported death of the regional repertory company in America is framed most eloquently by author and monologist Mike Daisey in his controversial one-man show, “How Theater Failed America,” now at the Barrow Street Theatre in Manhattan. Almost all of America’s regional theaters, in blind pursuit of growth, devote too much money to bigger buildings and flashy one-shot stars from out of town, Daisey said, sacrificing “the essential core of the theater” – a resident acting company. He urges a return to the repertory model in which theaters provide steady work for a stable troupe of performers for the sake, he said in published interviews, of “connection, continuity and community.”

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