National v. Regional
Dunkirk NY – The discussion continues to rage in the regional scene about the use of local talent. In Buffalo we have settled that argument to some degree with the loss of Studio Arena Theatre, our former LORT B house. Without a LORT theatre in the area, the local talent pool has nothing anymore to say about their in-city regional theatre not casting local talent. It ain’t there no more.
Not so in Seattle. An interesting story in the Seattle Times this past Sunday point to the same situation happening in Seattle: local actors losing work as the big regionals in their fair city (Seattle Rep and Intiman) pull out-of-town actors in to do their seasons, and choose one- or two-handers to produce, thus leaving local actors unemployed.
Artistic directors like Bartlett Sher and Kate Whorinsky do not come into these theatres to work with the locals. They come into these theatres to continue to build their own reputations and network with NYC and LA types in the hopes of moving a show of theirs to Broadway. They do not want local recognition; they want national recognition. In the meantime, local actors get the shaft because, no matter how good they are, they are not hooked into the NYC network. Until this kind of thinking stops we will never be able to produce for this country the kind of high-quality regional theatre that people outside deserve just as much as NYC does. -twl
