Tracy Letts, Steppenwolf ensemble member since 2002, and esteemed author of Bug and Man from Nebraska, is Pissed, capital P. He's pissed at The Talkers, The Cell-Phone Users, The Snorers, The Psychos, The Unwrappers, The Program Readers, and the rest of the audience that makes up the 1%.

Please don't e-mail me, saying "I can't believe Tracy holds his audience in such contempt." I don't hold you in contempt. I love you. I love you very much.

But I'm not writing about you, the 99% of you. I'm writing about YOU, the 1%. And I'm willing to wager the 99% know exactly who I'm talking about...

Playwright Young Jean Lee's newest creation, Church, is at PS 122, April 26-May 12.

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Acclaimed playwright and director Young Jean Lee transforms her life-long struggle with Christianity into an exuberant church service. This is a church of celebration, designed to test the expectations of religious and non-religious alike. Come to CHURCH - an uplifting, joyous and inspirational event that may be Lee's most miraculous - or devious - experiment to date.

To follow up Brant's post on violence/free speech/recent events, in a 4.29.07 NY Times article, novelist Kathe Koja argues that Wilton High School missed an opportunity when they banned Voices in Conflict, a nonpartisan play created by students. The production was banned by school officials, "citing questions of political balance and context."

Ironic, innit, that public officials can send 18 year-olds to war, but don't want to offend their delicate sensibilities by conscientiously exploring the war and its effect as a community.

Koja argues that schools are the ideal places to hold measured, educational debates and discussions on such topics as the current Iraq war. Pointing out that even Shakespeare is filled with "violence, betrayal, teenage suicide" and questioning who gets to decide what is appropriate material for teenagers (a minefield query surprisingly separate from television and film ratings), Koja writes:

Surely a school is one of the safest, sanest places available for this struggle. Allowing free expression, even of views that we may disagree with -- especially the ones we disagree with -- would enlarge that educational setting to include real life itself, where real people act with real consequences, while acknowledging that school is indeed a special place, a neutral zone where ideas are free to battle, within parameters that insist on simple human courtesy.

One of my favorite memories as an actor was performing in the Columbus premiere of William Mastrosimone's Like Totally Weird. It was a great show with a dynamite cast, and week after week the audiences kept getting bigger. In the wake of the Columbine shootings, I think people may have been yearning for some way to cope with such senseless tragedy. It may also have had something to do with our shooting off semi-automatic gunfire (blanks, of course) in a tiny 90-seat theatre. Either way, it's powerful stuff.

But I remember being a little uncomfortable with some of the assertions Mastrosimone makes in his script, that the two teenage boys who kidnap and hold hostage a pair of Hollywood stars are, to some extent, influenced by violent movies and video games. As a free speech advocate, I bristle at the notion that such forms of entertainment should be censored because of their potential to distort impressionable young minds.

In light of the Virginia Tech shootings, Amanda Schaffer renews the debate over at Slate.

But the subtler question is whether exposure to video-game violence is one risk factor for increased aggression: Is it associated with shifts in attitudes or responses that may predispose kids to act out? A large body of evidence suggests that this may be so. The studies have their shortcomings, but taken as a whole, they demonstrate that video games have a potent impact on behavior and learning.

Read the whole article here. And don't forget Mastrosimone's free-to-produce Bang Bang You're Dead here.

Spring Awakening: More like "Schwing Awakening" We can't find it on the internet, but word on the street has it that Nature Theatre of Oklahoma's 4-hour No Dice will play at Soho Rep this spring. The Berliner Ensemble will perform Schiller's complete, 9 hour Wallenstein trilogy. "The Left Hand Singing," a play about the mothers of three murdered civil rights workers, makes its regional debut in St. Paul. The head of London's Donmar Warehouse, Michael Grandage, is a busy guy. The Mike Daisey story continues to spin.

Hello fellow theatricians. I've had a rough week, and it's too bad, because there's a lot of interesting writing happening that I'd love to comment on or look at in more detail. For the moment though, I'll just point you to some interesting stuff you may enjoy reading.

NY theatre i:

these four discussions, coming in rapid succession, really bowled me over ... My experiences at Denial, Alcestis, and Picasso tell me that there is an audience for the kind of work young theatre artists are hoping to make. How do they--we--tap it?

The world is a beautiful horrible place. Many times we shy away from art that invades our comfort zone. Seeing that a play deals with the issues of a soldier coming home from the war and finding his life is in shambles may not be at the top of your list for a way to spend an evening, but shouldn't it be?

Cincinnati's New Stage Collective opened The Goat last night in their beautiful, new, downtown home. VetStage, run by veterans of the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, opens The Wolf in LA. More Mike Daisey in the non-theatre blogsphere. An on-the-spot report from the memorial service for Roscoe Lee Browne. TheatreVoice has archived over 400 recordings of discussions featuring the UK's top critics, practitioners, and producers. Common Productions presents a multi-media event on a rooftop in Brooklyn. Believe it or not, many Les Miz vets are now in the regional theatre premiere of the show. Cincinnati's Tony Award-winning theatre is contemplating a move.

The 2007 Summer Play Festival at Theatre Row has announced its selections. Pete Postlethwaite's doing more theatre! (I love that guy.) Now kids can learn about Shakespeare from a video game. The amazing David Glass Ensemble is touring the U.K., anyone wanna go? How is The Met attempting to attract younger audiences? Isn't this a little bit what we were afraid of with the Mike Daisey affair? Greenville's Warehouse is dropping hints about their new season all over town.

And there may be a solution to this pesky environment problem.

The Rude Mechanical's annual summer theatre workshop for girls (13-16) is now accepting applications. Grrl Action offers the opportunity for girls to work with professional theatre artists to create and perform their own multi-disciplinary performance pieces, based on their own experiences. More information, including application, can be found here. Man, I would've loved something like this in high school...

More information after the jump. (photo, Grrl Action Class 02).

Earlier in the week, Mr. Excitement brought in playwright Alan Berks to blog about Minneapolis. Alan's post was great and left me begging for more. Here's a taste.

Also, there are numerous high quality theaters in the Twin Cities that do new work – Mixed Blood always has at least two new plays if not more. The Jungle does one or two a year, depending. The Children’s Theater Company does almost entirely new work – and, I have to say, creates some of the edgiest work that I have ever experienced from a major institution. The Children’s Theater Company in Minneapolis. Go figure.

As far as I can tell, NO ONE is blogging about theatre from Minneapolis, and that's just a crime.

NY Theatre Experiment will be remounting two of the most successful pieces from NYU’s Freeplay Festival. A sexy Lysistrata in North Berkley. International Women's Day celebrated with 5 new plays at The Ohio State University. David Mamet needs a new job. Columbus, Ohio''s largest theatre has announced their next season. A pair of Seinfeld writers are on tour in The Bunkbed Brothers.

Manhattan Theatre Club will do Bock, Rebeck, and more next season. Clear Channel puts Minneapolis theaters in jeopardy. Why DO theatrefolk choose to live in places like Florida? The Sublet Experiment is "a modern comedy of romance and real estate" and takes place in apartments throughout NYC. The Baldwin New Play Festival has 5 more days at UCSD. (Thanks and congrats, Alex.)

Says the Playgoer: "Everything you ever wanted to know about the passed-over nominees for the Drama Pulitzer this year (the playwrights and their plays) is covered in a nice Playbill feature."

Lynn Michaels of the Open Space Theatre Experiment (and much more) passed away last week.

Seriously, though.

Mike updated his blog with an account of the aftermath of "the incident," including an encounter with the man who vandalized his work.

His name is David. At the beginning of the conversation there was a lot of silence--long, long silences that neither of us were willing to puncture. First I made him understand what he had done--that these were the only set of notes for the show, how I work with them, what he had cost me in terms of my physical work and in terms of what it had been like that next night to go out in front of them. I needed him to understand what he had taken from me.

He quietly said that he had heard me, and that he understood.

I gradually opened him up by listening, and responding, the one-on-one version of what I do with an audience. We talked about many things, for almost an hour, and step by step, his story emerged.

Seriously, EVERYONE. In case you're one of the 12 people reading a theatre blog who haven't been following the story and resultant debate, let's see if we can re-construct this.

Mike Daisey posted last Friday about an incident at his show at ART the night before. ART apparently followed-up by blast emailing about the event and linking to the YouTube video. Obviously, the next thing to happen was the explosion of links throughout the theatrical blogosphere. To date, it's even made it to boing boing, one of the most widely-read blogs on the net. (They got it from the Boston Globe.)

After a day gone by, The Playgoer started to stir things up with his reaction to L'Affaire Daisey.

Yes, there are people who disagree with us! Maybe even in our home town! We usually enjoy the luxury of not seeing them at our edgy little downtown shows (they're too busy waiting on line for Mamma Mia) but when they come, don't be surprised if they don't like the naughty words. I mean, there is a culture war going on.

The Hip-Hop Theatre Festival kicks-off in Chicago May 1. Ott/Gien present The Syringa Tree in Kansas City. Apparently, The Producers is done. Dos Chicas theatre commune does Gorky's The Lower Depths in Texas. The Outer Critics Circle Award nominees were announced. A new play about Elia Kazan debuts in D.C.

Surprise Theater in Kentucky. Library/Theatre collaboration draws hundreds in Kansas City. Gayfest hits NYC. The L.A. Times weighs in on the Pulitzer and related issues. Dinner+Theatre is a hot topic in Florida. Gamelan Theatre in Kuala Lumpur. Meat & Potato adapts a modern Dickens in D.C. Yale tries to ban on-stage weapons (via E. Maupin).

A Cincinnati native living in Brooklyn stages her world premiere in Indianapolis, with support from Whoopi Goldberg. M.U.G.A.B.E.E. in Bethlehem, PA. Berkeley Rep has a hell of a cool season coming-up. (Hat-tip - Mr. Excitement.) Sellars, Viola, and Salonen present The Tristan Project in LA, and it must be amazing. The Civilians will be traveling here and here. Topol is still performing?! In New Zealand, no less, at "not just any theater, but the kind you spell with an 're'".

This story is simply incredible. Mr. Daisey begins it like this:

Last night's performance of INVINCIBLE SUMMER was disrupted when eighty seven members of a Christian group walked out of the show en masse, and chose to physically attack my work by pouring water on and destroying the original of the show outline.

Mike, our hearts go out to you. Of course, the best revenge will be when you turn this into a beautiful story for a new show.

2007 marks the ten year anniversary of David Mamet's True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor. When this book was first published I was still in my freshman year at USC, and little did I know that my young life was directly within the crosshairs of Mamet's manifesto. I wanted to revisit it because, among my close circle of friends, this book was incredibly influential. Some of us chose to stay in school, some chose to return to school, others chose to drop out of school entirely.

So now that it's been ten years, how have those choices worked out? I'll be blogging along as I re-read this book a little bit at a time. I have a heavy load of required reading this quarter, and while True and False doesn't represent a very challenging read, I still have to fit it in during my free time...

What is a theatre blog for?

I've been contemplating this question on and off for the past couple of years.

My first attempt was something called the Theatre Summit, dedicated to chronicling the local scene. It existed off-line too, in a magazine form that we printed-up every 3 or 4 months, it even had a comics section. It was a lot of fun, but didn't end-up going so well. We were making something no one wanted but us.

So, this is my second attempt at a blog (that's not specifically for a company). Our mission here is clear and simple, covering theatre all over the country, etc., etc. But a lot of people have blogs with less-well-defined guidelines, so what are they for? What does a theatre blog do? What's the ultimate goal of a theatre blog? If your blog had a mission statement, what would it be? It it simply reportage? Are you the ultimate chronicler of what you see? Are you trying to give voice to the voiceless, expose the under-exposed? Are you trying to bring down the current system of media dominance?

(Click through for much more.)

Here in Columbus, a play sponsored by the ACLU is making the rounds. Another timely play, about 9 Iraqi women, debuts in Atlanta. The Huffington Post has a few thoughts on Armed & Naked in America. Boston's Huntington Theatre announces their season.

Okay, so this won't be so much a review as it'll be a slathering of praise.

A photo from the Cynthia Hopkins/Accinosco production Must Don't Whip 'Um has been on the cover of the Wexner Center's programs all season, so I guess it's fair to say I had some high expectations for this show. I skipped it at The Public's Under the Radar festival, knowing I could see it here. I'm kind of regretting it now. I'm going to be out of town performing in my own show, so there's no chance I can catch it again.

The show started with a voice-over from the Narrator, assumedly Cynthia Hopkins, explaining, essentially, what we were about to see, the farewell concert of her mother's music career, an event that took place shortly before her mother's disappearance. There was some milling about on stage and a couple of scenes acted with the aid of some clever blue screen before Cynthia Hopkins appeared, the music started and I began to cry.

Maybe it's because I'm an Artistic Director, but I found this article in Backstage pretty fascinating.

7 Artistic Directors discuss how they choose a season. (They represent Arena Stage, The Goodman, The Guthrie, The Wilma, the Alley Theatre, ACT, and Oregon Shakes.)

The Playgoer has some nice, biting commentary on the subject. My favorite excerpts are through this link ...

Full Circle celebrates their tenth anniversary at PS122. Louisville's fantastic Le Petomane hits it big in Baltimore. Gorilla Rep presents free, uncut Hamlet in NYC this May. Portland's Third Rail Rep announces their season, as does the Seattle Rep. Rogue Artists adapt Neil Gaiman in L.A. A Pulitzer-nominee opens in D.C.

Everyone's all up in arms about the Pulitzer, but frankly, I'm just glad that the words "Pulitzer Prize Winner" will now be on the poster for the Shrek musical. (Just kidding, I'm up in arms, too.)

Welcome to Theatreforte, oh teeming hordes of readers from Theatre Conversation, Variations on a Theme, Freedom Spice, On Theatre and Politics, Venal Scene, Laura Axelrod's Gasp, Jason Grote, Working Group, Parabasis, Adam Szymkowicz, and anyone/where else who/that has been kind enough to spot us some linkage. We're glad to have you here. Please stop in regularly to check out some theatre news, and to get your click on up and down our feeds.

Does that sound kinky to anyone else?

Lots of folks are talking about the fact that the shooter at Virgina Tech was a writer, and that he wrote really bizarre, violent plays. (Which you can read here.) This conversation is worth following.

Laura Axelrod:

As a writer, I regularly explore areas in my psyche that I would never actually want to manifest. I may write about a killer, for instance. That doesn't mean I want to murder. For those who believe art is cathartic, writing about such things could be a sign of health.

Bilal says Chi-town has plenty of new work, you just didn't see it. Peter Brook's Athol Fugard production will go down under.

Uh-oh. MC Euripides.6 Greek plays of gibberish right? Trying to hard to be weird and different, right? (Name that tune?)

Richard Nelson gave an impassioned and important speech about New Play Development. Mr. Excitement has it all. Boston's Globe amps up their small-theatre coverage. Here's an update on the Paper Mill situation. Theatre of the Two-Headed Calf is in Providence, Rhode Island.

In a time when we're blogging our worries about our authenticity in the face of class discussions on the internet, how do we deal with the realities faced by The Belarus Free Theatre?

They had mostly been outlawed from appearing in state-run theatres. Their own performances often took place in private houses. Several of the company had been in prison; yet there was no self-pity in their descriptions. They were simply determined artists who wanted to work ...

Circle x in L.A. will hold weekly readings through May 22. Ben Yeoh found a great British theatre archive. Risk Theater Initiative in Dallas seeks producers, directors, designers, and actors. D.C.'s Helen Hayes awards were given out the other night. transFigures sounds great.

Also, I love comics, and it's rare that they intersect with the theatre world (outside of Jason Grote's blogroll, that is). Anyway, Taymor takes on Peter Parker.

The new New York Theater Review is out. Portland's Theatre Vertigo is holding The One Page Play Festival. The Richmond, VA theatre scene is hopping. The Jean Cocteau Rep has a new name and an American Premiere. Panoptic Theatre seeks an actress who weighs at least 200 lbs. As you've no doubt heard, Rob Marshall will direct Nine for the cinema. Some producers are misappropriating the Times' name. And, yes, the Pulitzers were announced.

Also, I'd mention the debut of Broadway magazine. But, really, what the hell does that have to do with theatre?

I'm not sure if I'm posting this because I need an appetizer for the Pulitzers (which will be posted at 3:15 this afternoon), or because I've had Boston on the brain lately. Whatever the case, Geoff Edgers reports that the 24th annual Elliot Norton Awards for excellence in theatre will be awarded by the Boston Theatre Critics Association on May 21st. Most interesting to me were the four separate categories for a best production by large, mid-size, small, and fringe theatre companies. If only there were as many companies in Bustown as there are in Beantown. Check out the full list of the nominees after the jump.

Jon Jory returns to Louisville and Lu Ann Hampton returns to Dallas. Imus comes-up in one Guthrie review and a lengthier article. Read more about FURY Factory 2007. A failing British-Columbia musical society says "Everyone faces the same question of how to put bums in seats." Bums. Great attitude. Indian protest theatre comes to D.C. Don Hall presents a Chicago theatre boot camp. And how will smoking bans affect theatre?

Thank you Seth.

One of my big pet peeves is the incredibly low quality of the websites for theatre companies that are currently on the net. Most of them are ugly, most of them are out of date, and many of them are useless. (What company has the best website? Post your ideas in the comments, please.)

There are a lot of reasons for that, firstly the fact that most theatre artists don't have the time, resources, or expertise to put into building a website that's attractive and keeping it up to date. I know a lot of theatre folks who outsource the work to someone willing to work cheap, but then can't get their site updated to save their life. (I learned that lesson the hard way.)

So, what to do? Well, as far I'm concerned, your first priority with a website should be that it's useful. Enter Seth Godin, with another brilliant post about blogging.

He begins:

Step one: head on over to Typepad and sign up for their cheapest service. It's about $5 a month. Pick a 'quiet' and professional blog layout. Your first post should include the name of your business, your address, your specialty and your hours and phone number. Click the button that says "Feature this post." From now on, this post will be at the top of your blog (which is really your 'website', so first time visitors will see it front and center. When you go on vacation or stock a new line of products or have a story to tell, just blog it.

Read the whole thing here.

There's more to look forward to this weekend than just doing your taxes, you know. Winners of the Pulitzer Prize will be announced on Monday, April 16. With any luck, the theatre community will have something to celebrate this year, after having been snubbed in 2006. Without any strong frontrunners, Martin Denton is hopeful that this year's winner will be plucked from relative obscurity, a Cinderella story similar to 2003's Anna in the Tropics. Among his favorites this year:

- Candy and Dorothy by David Johnston
- Clean Alternatives by Brian Dykstra
- Thousand Years Waiting by Chiori Miyagawa
- Fatboy by John Clancy
- Red Tide Blooming by Taylor Mac
- The Busy World is Hushed by Keith Bunin
- A First Class Man by David Freeman
- Emergence-See! by Daniel Beaty

So what do you think, sports racers? Any other titles we should add to his list?

The Paper Mill Playhouse will remain open for now. Rachel Corrie gets canceled again. Theatre Gargantua will be running e-DENTITY for a while. Rorshach has a hot trailer. Spilled Milk recommends Serendib. Ithaca College believes Brett Boles is a future stalwart of the musical theatre.

In more sobering news, the memorial service for EST's Curt Dempster will be held April 29.

Big news first: "Voices in Conflict," a play written by some Connecticut high school students (which we mentioned in this post) will play at The Public in June.

It looks like something good is coming to Broadway this weekend.

Traveling Jewish Theatre mounts Arthur Miller, NYPLPA celebrates 75 years, Mike Daisy has a funny show, (I'm really sad I missed it at UTR.) Signature will feature Chuck Mee, and CultureBot asks "Who's going to review the reviewers?".

foolsFury in San Fran presents Fury Factory, 3 weeks of cutting-edge ensemble theatre.

Ping Chong's company has announced their next season.

Brustein called-out The Times and The Playgoer covered it. Meanwhile, the author of Hard News: The Scandals at the New York Times decides to defend the times on his blog about a baseball book. (Yes, it's a theatre-related story.)

Brian Logan (from Guardian UK) writes that Shakespeare isn't funny.

The SITI Company is launching an ambitious online community, but they need votes to get funding.

And, this is the only lighting designer who's writing a theatre blog, as far as I know. Feel free to correct me.

Denver, Colorado - 9-year old Curious Theatre opens Mall*Mart: The Musical, (it's first musical production) which is about exactly what it sounds like it's about, but don't expect a simple 2-hour anti-Wal*Mart campaign.

Walton [the director] says the musical intends to go a little deeper and look at "this desire that we have in America, and we're starting to see all across the world, to acquire more and more at lower and lower prices, and not really be conscious of the consequences of that ... and at what kind of impact mega stores have on a community."

The book is by Joan Holden, a member of the fairly legendary San Francisco Mime Troupe. She's probably best and most recently known for her work on Nickel and Dimed, the theatrical adaptation of Barbara Ehrenreich's book. She must be getting quite good at documentary theatre.

You can listen to one of the songs on iTunes.

Read more and get some links at the original post, on Curious Theatre's blog.

As theatre takes one big, expensive step forward (possibly towards making itself obsolete) it's important to consider 3LD's production, Losing Something.

First, before passing judgment, I recommend everyone stop in at 3LD's website and find the video they have from from a portion of the show. Even if you're morally opposed to the mix of video and live action, it's worth watching.

Interested? The times had a fairly in-depth article about the show. You have be registered, but if you're not, what's wrong with you? The article is here.

How about some reviews? New Theater Corps, Aaron of the Show Showdown, and ... TheaterMania.

The much-lauded La Jolla playhouse is getting new leadership, and the Paper Mill Playhouse enjoyed a star-studded rally last night. (Liza was there!) Let's hope it was enough.

Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House opened well in Seattle, the Central Asian Theater Festival opened in Dushanbe (I shit you not) and Edward Albee will help decide that fate of us all in Boston. (Better him than me.)

Meanwhile, the Coachella Valley's first regional theatre has failed, for now. Maybe they should have waited for answers from Albee, or maybe they should have tried something more reliable, like a Neil Simon festival.

Okay, I'm begging for more blogs, so I figure I should try to be helpful to those who want to get online. So, this is the first in a series of posts.

These tips are all from Seth Godin. He is the MAN.

1) Be selfless. Link to other blogs. Do it a lot. Have a blogroll or a list of friends, or both. Learn how to trackback.

2) It's not who you are, it's what you say. Be specific, be clear.

3) Start conversations. Then don't try to control them. Passion.

I believe it started here. This particular permutation (or iteration) of the discussion of theatre and class, seems to have begun in the American Theatre article about Mabou Mines.

"In terms of awards, Mabou Mines is in the black. But Mabou Mines as a business? Why has it been broke nonstop from 1970 to the present? It has never been in the black—never." Asked if he is competitive, Breuer replies, "What am I competitive about? Anybody who was truly competitive would put all their energies in a money board. That's how supposedly it works in New York. Look at the Wooster Group—they've owned a theatre all their lives. Look at the difference between us and Bob Wilson. Look at the difference between us and Richard Foreman. Maybe it's a class thing. They have access to funding and support. Other than art, Richard has never worked a day in his life. I've had hundreds of jobs. The competitiveness is against the system itself. The system is out there to crunch me. To avoid it, I have to be crass. I think it has to do with class. We're not upper middle class like everybody else in the avant-garde. Maybe Mabou Mines is the only truly lower-class theatre."

Sean of Working Group responded with an idealist's viewpoint, that working class and upper-crust institutions and artists can not only co-exist, but can help each other out.

To which CultureBot responded here with a series of questions.

What does it mean when you have to work for a living to support your art when other people don’t? Is there an inherent critical bias? Cultural Bias? Funding Bias?

More responses at Parabasis and Adam Szymkowicz and Venal Scene.

My responses after the jump.

I'm gonna quote myself here.

WE NEED MORE BLOGS.

Are you an avid theatre-goer or a devoted artist living outside of New York City? Then please start a blog! The internet is a conversation and there's not enough noise coming from 49 of our blessed states. (Though, I gotta tell ya, I LOVE the noise coming out of The City. More of that wouldn't hurt either.)

Anyway. we'll be here, linking, feeding, reading, and highlighting some of the best stuff we come across. If your work isn't highlighted here, please email us and make sure we know of your existence.

Thanks.

Back in 2003, I directed an improvised play patterned after the creative process of British director Mike Leigh. Through a lengthy series of improvisations lasting several weeks, the cast devised a story that was then presented as a fully-formed play. Truth to tell, it would have been nice to have just a couple more weeks to flesh out the ending, but overall I was extraordinarily impressed with the work we accomplished and felt very satisfied, both creatively and professionally.

Apparently, some in the U.K. theatre establishment argue that the playwright should maintain his traditional primacy, and that plays devised by a group of actors are inherently inferior to those written by a single author. Brian Logan sums up the argument this way:

Devising companies will be familiar with this pressure - if you want to be taken seriously, stop improvising and get thee to a library. One can only assume the theatre establishment feels threatened in some way by devised work. After all, if you take the ensemble ideal far enough, even directors (a relatively recent innovation in theatre) can be surplus to requirements.

You can catch up on the whole debate over at the Guardian blog.

I didn't even know it was available to regionals yet, but apparently Les Miserables, the world-stomping musical, is taking on all comers in Salt Lake City, Utah. The story, from the Salt Lake Tribune, is about the out-of-state advertising that made it such a huge success.

... the company received $35,0000 last September from the Tourism Board's cooperative marketing fund to promote the show in several Idaho cities -- Boise, Idaho Falls and Twin Falls -- as well as Las Vegas. Along with $35,000 of its own money, the company conducted three-week newspaper and radio campaigns in those communities, said managing director Chris Lino.

I do love the response from the tourism board's managing director.

"We had a good return on investment from this," she said. "Regional theater is very important around the country."

I'm not sure Seth (bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change) intended this to reach a theatre-going/theatre-making audience or not, but maybe it will.

Here's a nice excerpt.

What I discovered: that the good audience members got most of my attention. The great audience members got even more... attention plus extra effort. And, despite my best efforts, the non-great audience members just sort of fell off the radar.

Read the whole thing right here.