The Daily Wire: State of Decline
Posted Feb. 8, 2008 at 6:00 am by Gavin BorchertA theater pro examines, and implicates, his own world
Back in 2000, when Mike Daisey vaulted to fame with Twenty-one Dog Years: Doing Time at Amazon.com, I asked a friend who was an executive at Amazon how she felt about a former employee doing an expos� on their culture of "creative capitalism." She answered that they�d loved the show, and that Daisey was �exactly the sort of creative guy that we want working here.� Then last week at Monopoly!, his most recent show, I sat across from a group of Microsofties who howled with laughter when he said Microsoft Word reminds him of a neurotic girlfriend who�s always looking over your shoulder and offering "helpful" suggestions. It�s part of this talented solo artist�s skill: no matter how much he rants about a particular subject, no matter how much vitriol is spilled, Daisey can do so without raising rancor in the hearts of his targets. He�ll certainly be putting this talent to the test with his new show, How Theater Failed America, which he�s testing out with a brief run at the CHAC this weekend. And while he won�t necessarily be naming names, he does have some particular culprits in mind, "and it�s not audiences," he explains over coffee. "I�m really interested in talking about how we, the artists, the administrators, the art people, are responsible for our declining audiences and decreasing cultural relevance." Since its glory days in the �50s and �60s, the regional theater movement which gave us theaters like the Seattle Rep, Intiman, and ACT has, in Daisey�s opinion, become inexcusably timid with their programming, while cutting off their commitment to sustaining repertory companies of local actors. Seeing as Daisey sustains himself through performing at such theaters ("I�m the go-to guy when the big production of Pericles that they�ve been planning falls through"), this sounds like an act of career suicide. But if anyone can pull it off, it�d be Mike Daisey. Capitol Hill Arts Center, 1621 12th Ave., 800-838-3006, www.brownpapertickets.com. $20-$25. 7:30 p.m. tonight through Sun., Feb. 10. JOHN LONGENBAUGH
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Cover Story: Pipe Schemes
