I'd like to extend a big thank you to Mike Daisey for addressing the questions I raised in yesterday's post. I regret I haven't yet had an opportunity to see HTFA for myself, but after reading the points in his blog and re-reading his article in The Stranger, I think I have a much better understanding of how, exactly, theatre has failed America. If I could give the "Dr. Strangelove treatment" to the title, I think it could be called How Theater Failed America, Or: How Non-Profit Arts Institutions Pay Salaries and Benefits to Arts Administrators Instead of Working Artists and Why This Is Not Ethical.

Notice I used the term "ethical" instead of "fair" because it's clear that Mike is arguing for something much more fundamental than simply getting a fair slice of the funding pie. Rather, there is an ethical imperative to provide "a healthy, sustainable path for artists to live and work." Failing to provide this path has had dire repercussions in other aspects of American society, notably a meaningful engagement between art, artists, and citizens on a local scale.

But who ought to bear the burden of fulfilling this ethical imperative? And how did something as abstract as the "institution of theatre" get saddled with this massive responsibility?

Mr. Daisey makes a compelling argument, but I have to question one of his fundamental assumptions. He states:

My piece is called HOW THEATER FAILED AMERICA because I am speaking about the responsibility the institution of theater has to America, how it has failed that responsibility, and how we are all implicated in this.

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.