Over at the Theatre Ideas blog, Scott Walters has created an intriguing new project called Support Local Artists Working (SLAW). In Walters’ words, here’s what the project is about:
- The Goal: to increase the hiring of local talent by major regional theatres.
- The Pay-Off: Increased employment for local artists, increased ticket sales for the major regional theatres.
- The Justification: Audiences like to follow the development of local artists.
Sounds like a wonderful idea and a great example of turning theatre ideas into action.
Check out, for example, his idea for the “RIP protest” – whereby local audiences protest the import of a non-local, big city actor by ripping their bio out of the program and leaving it on the floor of the theatre.
If you’re in a regional theatre situation that’s suffering from big city brain drain (and its blowback), this could be just the spark to set a new theatre revolution alight in your town.
Take a look at the introductory post here, and then skip on over to the new website Walters has set up to keep track of the action, here.
