Marissa Skudlarek is taking the week off from her “Hi-Ho, The Glamorous Life” column; however, she passes along a link to a thought-provoking blog post from across the pond.
This morning I read the blog post “Theatre: money/no money, funded/unfunded — there is no comparison” by Stella Duffy, a British theater artist, and wanted to share it with everyone I know who’s involved with Theater Pub — indeed, everyone I know who works in and cares about independent theater. (Thanks to my friend, London playwright Samantha Ellis, for bringing this post to my attention via Twitter.)
Ms. Duffy’s post connects somewhat to what I wrote about here two weeks ago and what Helen Laroche wrote last week — the lifestyle of being an artist with a day job. More than that, it is a full-throated defense of the work that we do without hope of compensation — a tribute to the hunger, the energy, the love, the innovation of indie-theater artists.
It reminds us that we Americans shouldn’t idealize U.K. theater the way that we sometimes do — yes, U.K. theaters have more government support, but the British Isles are still full of struggling independent theater artists who fume at the insularity and stodginess of the big institutional theaters.
And it’s a call to arms — asking those institutional theaters to wake up and realize the value of the indie-theater artists in their community. And asking us indie-theater folks to take pride in our work and know that it is worthwhile.
I highly recommend you go over to Ms. Duffy’s blog and read the whole post.
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