Perfect Timing: Benefit Performance of Mike Daisey's How Theater Failed America

The last time Mike Daisey performed How Theater Failed America in Seattle, it seemed to arrive just in time to address the then recent near collapse of the ACT...Such uncanny timing is part and parcel with Daisey's resume and increasing stature on the national theater scene, as evidenced by the emergence of The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at a time when the horrible work conditions and corporate practices in China are coming to light.

Still a fledgling work at the time -- his shows tend to strengthen and solidify over the years -- How Theater is an encapsulation of current practices at professional regional theater houses; a lightning rod for conversation among theater practitioners (this includes audiences in Seattlest's definition). It is more of a love letter to theater than a condemnation of it, though theater artists tend to disagree with that assessment; it is also partially a love letter to Seattle's fringe theater (or as he dubs it in the show 'garage theater'), containing anectodes gathered from working with companies like Open Circle and the now long dead Union Garage theater.

It is fitting that he revives it at the Rep, and that all proceeds created by the event will go to the artists who were inadvertent bystanders and victims of Intiman's recent series of death knells. It will be interesting to see how the piece will resonate now after some of the dangerous practices and traps regional theaters could fall into to be found in Daisey's piece have come to literal fruition at the space just down the street from where he will be performing.

There will be a panel discussion of the matter immediately after the performance, a full list of participants will be released later.

If you, as an interested theater goer in Seattle, were looking for context for the recent downfall of a major artistic institution, you would be hard-pressed to find a better source for it than this. Plus the money is going to a good cause. Recommended.

Wednesday May 18th at 7:00 p.m. // Seattle Repertory's Bagley Wright Theater, 155 Mercer Street // $25