When this big article came out in the local paper
About Jim leaving
And how the theater
Was in all this trouble
Because of money trouble
And shit like that
As soon as a theater says it’s in trouble
Do you know the first word
Everybody starts using?
Economy
They start saying ‘economy, economy, economy’
‘The economy’s bad’
As if the economy’s ever been good
Where theater is concerned
The economy’s always bad for the arts
Even during the Clinton years
When money was pouring out of people’s assholes
Things were tough
And even then
When the theater was doing poorly
Everybody tried saying it was the economy
And not good old-fashioned mismanagement
Which is what it really was
A theater picks boring titles
Which it then turns into mediocre productions
It uses the same tired talent
It mounts vanity project
After vanity project
It refuses to listens to any criticism
And shows no sign of an artistic path
Or any sort of plan at all really
And people are surprised
When the business goes sour?
This sort of stuff astounds me
I was an acting intern at the theater
In 1993, and when I brought up some of this stuff
I would get hushed
Like, seriously
Sshhheddd—as if we were in Soviet Russia
Or something
I only did that one season
But I hung around town after that
Working for some of the independent theaters
And trying desperately
To get anybody to listen to me
About what the Orpheus needed
To become, you know, great
again
You know, you criticize a piece of art
Or an artist or a theater
And everybody just sort of acts like
You’re this bitter pill
Who’s just jealous
Or frustrated
Or something
Well, yeah!—I’m fucking frustrated
I’m watching this THING
This place—that’s meant a lot to my town
My hometown
To me
Just—go backwards, you know?
It’s not that I’m bitter
It’s not that I care, you know?
I fucking care about it!
A lot!
And why doesn’t anybody else care that much, huh?
I mean, I’m not even working there
I don’t depend on that place for anything
I don’t need it to be there
But I want it to be there
I want it to work
And it’s not
And at a certain point
You have to stop saying
That it’s the economy’s fault
When the truth is
Even when economy goes to hell
People still need art
They still go out
They still want entertainment
Movies don’t suffer
Restaurants? Maybe a
little, but not really
But theater?
We start doing bad theater
And we blame the times
When the truth is
Good theater works
All the time
I mean, what do these people want?
Permission to keep doing bad theater
While people pay to see it?
You know, sometimes I want to say them
Step outside for a second
Stand where I’m standing
And tell me what you see
Then tell me where you think
The problems are coming from
Because everybody can see it, you know?
Everybody but the people
Who really need to
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