Every other week, the editors of American Theatre curate a free-ranging discussion about the lively arts in our Offscript podcast.
This week’s show is all about money. First, editors Rob Weinert-Kendt, Diep Tran, and Suzy Evans discuss our February 2017 issue, which focused on artists’ compensation. We discuss why better wages are important, even in the nonprofit world, and how artists should no longer feel shame about talking about their finances. Then we discuss the Hill article which reported that the Trump administration is planning to cut the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, and reason that reports of the agencies’ deaths may be greatly exaggerated.
Our guest for this episode is Robert Barry Fleming, the new associate artistic director of Cleveland Play House. He talks about how he fell in love with Cleveland, his plans for his new job, and why he loves working with the big resident theatres.
Download the episode here. Subscribe via RSS, iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher.
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONS
If you can’t get enough of our money coverage, Diep recommends reading the Money Diary series on Refinery 29, to see how women around the country (in art and non-art professions) budget and what they spend their money on. It’s eye-opening.
Speaking of reading, for the contrarians among us, Rob recommends the writing of theatre critic Jesse Green at New York, one of the only critics, Rob feels, who doesn’t overrate everything even remotely good. He also recommends, for those who want worldwide theatre news, the aggregator The Theatre Times.
And Suzy recommends a play she hasn’t yet seen but has read and loved on the page, The Oregon Trail by Bekah Brunstetter, currently at Fault Line Theatre in New York City through Feb. 12.
