In Theater News: Marathon Sessions & Renaissance Town

Let's begin this update on the state of Seattle theater with a hearty congratulations to nationally renown monologuist Mike Daisey on the successful completion of his sprawling and ambitious project, All The Hours In The Day -- in essence a 24 hour monologue which took place as part of Portland's T:BA Festival this last Saturday. A daunting prospect, no matter how you slice it, Daisey is to be commended for simply meeting the challenge without a hitch.

What he did was more than a mere show of stamina, and reaction has been both rapturous and dismissive; while I did not catch the show in its entirety (there was a feed of the performance on Live Stream), what I did see delivered on the promise of a master storytelling weaving a tale on a grand canvas. Imperfect and digressive as often as it was engrossing and charming (again, based on the portions I watched), the evening bore the marks of the various influences that went into the creation of this event: Chekhov, Phillip K. Dick, Warren Zevon, Disney among many others.

If Live Stream's habits are any indication, there's a small chance that the entire performance will be available at a future time. We'll keep our eyes peeled, particularly because we still don't know what significance Wim Wenders has on the overall story. When last we remember his being mentioned, he was the surprise client for an alternate dimension version of Mike Daisey who was a hermaphroditic prostitute.

Yeah, it was that kind of show.

Meanwhile, in Seattle, the Seattle Rep sent out a press release earlier in the week touting the fact that they are heading into their 2011 - 2012 season with a balanced budget and no additional deficits; which is awesome news in this day and age.

In fact, when we take that, and look at how well ACT is doing, Intiman's impending return -- it seems like our professional houses are on the mend after a couple of years of not-so-promising news. None of them are out of the woods quite yet, but things are looking better all the time.

If you've been paying attention to Seattlest's This Week In Theater series lately, we've been making a lot of noise about how ambitious the projects have been going into 2011's home stretch, which gets us to something we've been saying for the last decade or so: Seattle is on the verge of experiencing a theater renaissance. It was heartening to hear that sentiment echoed at the recent Seattle Theater: What's Next? event that took place in August.

While most of us are on the same page, it's now time to take the next step, which begins with acknowledging that ambition is not enough -- now is the time to start delivering on that promise. With that development comes the identification of a couple of problem areas. We have already discussed the issue of pandering in a prior essay; the other problem is that of complacency.

It's an issue that permeates many aspects of Seattle theater, and something that's been pretty evident if one were to give an honest assessment to a number of recent productions; particularly in the directing realm. It's been as if directors decided to call it a day after getting a talented cast on its feet and leave issues of blocking and thematic molding to be worked out during a run. There could be several reasons why things may have gotten to that point in a given production, but it's problematic regardless of how you look at it.

Looking at the bigger picture, it's easy to understand how this came to pass; apathetic audiences and a critical component that's been largely non-existent in this town has created a certain amount of inertia. Also, it seems unfair to be pinning such a broad issue on just one person, but it's the nature of the job.

I mean, if there's a role that a director is supposed to have (a notion that some would disagree with -- as historically speaking, directing is a fairly new convention in the world of theater) it would be one of shaping the production before it goes up in front of an audience.

But, as another voice stated during What's Next?, how can we progress as a group if we don't start vigorously addressing these issues with each other? At Seattlest -- as working theater artists, past or present -- we understand the various hurdles a production faces; you can count on us to perform this duty the way our vocation is intended to.