Scott Walters: The Wal-Marting of American Theatre

[On_Headset]

An interesting article over on HuffPo.

Summary: American theatre is, at this point, largely New York-centric. Once you rise above a certain level, you have to work in New York: the only way you get to headline major commercial shows in much of the country is to either travel with a touring company or become famous as "Jane Doe, star of Broadway's Transparent Vehicle for the Best Actress Tony" and then return to the local stage. There are a few exceptional pockets, but they're small and shrinking. (Arguably just Chicago.)

And that's bad. (Or so Walters argues.)

[DeeCap]

Great and scary article.

[thankyou5]

Thanks for sharing.  I definitely experienced this both in the push from grad school educators and from the reality of living in NYC.  Couldn't find work until I moved to New York and then spent most of the year working across the country while paying for my NYC apartment.  Quite a catch 22.

[ejsmith3130]

Perhaps it is because I grew up in rural NY (More than 5 hours north of the city in the woods) I have always had negative feelings about the City. I never wanted to live and work there, despite all of the theatre. I moved to PA for college (funny enough I was closer to NYC then!) and I loved to visit and see theatre, but it still wasn't my end goal- everyone in school thought I was crazy for not wanting NYC because it was held up as the pinacle of theatre, and only the best go there and survive.

But I wanted something else... I didn't want what I did to determine where I lived. So I traveled a bunch after school, working all over the country, and have just recently settled in the Philly area. What I have discovered here is so amazing comparativly. Philladelphia is a town that really takes care of it's local artists. In more than one mission statement of the big theatres they state how they strive to foster growth in the local arts scene and support local technicians and artists. I tried for a while to get a job here, but until I actually made the move and had that local address on my resume, I got nothing. And what is crazy, is as I network- everyone knows EVERYONE here. It really is a big theatre family among the smaller theatres, big houses and universities.

So maybe to some, I'm not a Top Dog living and working in the city- but I am working- and able to afford my rent in my comparativly HUGE apartment that I don't have to share with three others to afford. So in the end this works for me.

I think we really need to continue to foster local arts and let the younger generation know that there is much more than NYC- Let's stop having residence in that city be such a stamp of approval on someone's credentials.

[MatthewShiner]

As someone who worked extensively in regional theater and left that behind for NYC, I have to say, that even in large regional markets, you eventually sometimes get tired of the scene, and want to continue to grow and challenge oneself.  Sometime the change is what keeps in this career for the long term.