Relying on the Kindness of Strangers
Why Isaac Butler's Call for a Government Bailout of the Theater Made My Head Explode
As you all know, I am a big proponent of artistic agency. I believe the arts thrive when artists—not boards, not governments, not rich donors—own and are in charge of the art form. I have no faith in cavalry who ride in to save us, nor do I think bowing and scraping with heads bent and hats in hand is the right stance for artists.
So you might imagine that how I reacted to Isaac Butler’s opinion piece in the New York Times yesterday (gift link). Given valuable real estate to speak about the crisis in the regional theater that many have been writing about for a while (and I would draw particular attention to the laudatory work of Peter Marks at the Washington Post, who wrote “Theater is in freefall, and the pandemic isn’t the only thing to blame” 14 days before the Times deigned to notice), Butler proposes the following Brilliant Solution to all our theater woes: the federal government needs to do a bailout of the industry, and the NEA budget needs to be vastly increased. “That’s right,” Butler says as if he’d just punched the neighborhood bully in the probiscis, “The American nonprofit theater needs a bailout.”
Seriously. Why didn’t I think of that?
Come on. Am I living in another political universe from Butler? How likely is this solution in our current House of Representatives? Have you seen any indication of a Republican value attached to the arts? For God’s sake, they’re banning books in red states. And it isn’t as if Joe Biden has indicated any deep commitment to the arts. Last September, he signed the “Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, the Humanities, and Museum and Library Services,” which created a committee that included Lady Gaga, George Clooney, and Joe Walsh, with the honorary chair Jill Biden—nice people, but not exactly who we need right now. Since then, have you heard about anything this committee has done? Here is their website: I challenge you to find any activity at all beyond a list of members. It’s been ten months. These are the people we’re supposed to rely on to save our ass.
We have spent decades playing Blanche duBois, relying on the “kindness of strangers.” How well did that work for Blanche? How well is it working for us? In 1980, Ronald Reagan cut the NEA budget to $143M; and what did this champion of the arts, Joe Biden, request for the NEA as part of his 2024 budget? $211M. What was the budget last year in 2023? $227M. This is who we’re supposed to rely on, according to Butler? Somebody who requested a 7.5% CUT in the NEA budget for next year? With friends like that, who needs enemies? Compared to Reagan, Biden looks like a skinflint: in 1980, $143M had the same spending power as $561M today, more than two-and-a-half times Biden’s proposed appropriation. Yet arts advocates like Americans for the Arts show up every year to drone on to Congress about how important the arts are to a civilized society blah blah blah ad infinitum. Congress remains unimpressed. (I am convinced that the only reason the NEA keeps getting funded is so politicians can kick artists around each year at budget time in order to look tough and impress their constituents.)
Let’s get serious. We’re drowning, and there is no lifeguard to save us. It’s time to learn to swim. It is time to reclaim our self-respect, our agency, and figure out a way to save ourselves.
These will be my last words on this topic until my book, The Empowered Theater Artist: Taking Control of Your Creative Career, is available. I can’t continue to fight against the overwhelming power of imaginative inertia. For those of you who prefer taking active control of your artistic lives, follow this space. I will soon have a link where you can sign up for updates, and receive a sample chapter. Also in the works is a much shorter book entitled Control+Alt+MFA: How to Strenghten Your Theater Skills When You Don’t Have the Time, Money, or Opportunity Pursue a Graduate Degree. Both are in the final editing stage.
In the meantime, for your entertainment, I provide this hilarious clip from Mike Daisey’s 2009 solo performance, How Theater Failed America. Back in the day, he asked me to participate in a post-show discussion following one performance, which I did gladly because Daisey had used humor to illustrate the insanity of our theatrical ecosystem. Enjoy!