[Monkey King]

Excellent find!

In my work in the theatre world of L.A. I find that there are simply no liberals with whom I work willing to recognize that politicization is killing L.A. Theatre. Witness the overt imbecility of The Actor's Gang's (Tim Robbin's outfit) latest offering.

I continually recieve blank stares and outright hostility from fellow theatre professionals to the question "why would you continually and intentionally alienate over half of your potential audience (conservatives) by insulting their upbringing, their morals and their beliefs?"

Audience levels are dropping, and will continue to drop (in 99 seat waiver and small Equity houses) until and unless there is a renaissance of thought about how to use art to serve humanity; not in pet causes and outright attack, but in celebration of universality. Those academics whose rantings give third-rate artists like Robbins the fig leaf they need to cover their posturings are, in my view, much to blame for this debasement.

The answer is not a swing of the political pendulum to the right in art criticism - the answer is to shatter the pendulum altogether.

Thanks again for a good read.

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>>>>>>Those academics whose rantings give third-rate artists like Robbins the fig leaf they need to cover their posturings are, in my view, much to blame for this debasement.

Critics are easily subsumed. They become dependent on the people they review for their income and then their opinions are being leveraged via that dependency.

It doesn't shock me in the least that people deride and make fun of art because art routinely ridicules them. That's basic human nature. Maybe Tim Robbins needs to spend 5 minutes talking to a decent psychologist. He lacks basic empathy.