Best of This Week’s Theatre Blogs – 5 Mar 2010

By some clear distance the most contested blog post of the week was Charlotte Higgins’ defence of public arts funding on the Guardian Theatre Blog. With commentors overwhelmingly rejecting Higgins’ argument it was, as Tangled Feet noted on twitter, a sign that “the gloves were off” for a subject that looks set to reoccur.
Meanwhile Mission Paradox raised the question of “free” in theatre and questioned what free does – and should – mean to those who work without pay in the arts. There was an immediate example of where ‘free’ increasingly plays its part as Holly, an intern at Little Angels Theatre, reviewed her experience (including a close encounter with Clive Owen) on the theatre’s blog.

It was a dialogue of a different kind that Pilot Theatre’s Marcus Romer considered as he continued his informative and entertaining account of his time in Argentina and wrote about the challenge of working on a play in both English and Spanish Finally, the West End Whingers had Love Never Dies (and its merchandise) in their sights…

Guardian Theatre Blog, Charlotte – Arts Giving Is a Bad Show
“With that tiny bedrock of public spending, the creative industries are growing by 4% a year. Despite a few failures, British arts organisations are lean, efficient and often brilliant.”

Marcus Romer’s Blog – Arts Giving Is a Bad Show
“As we have rehearsed the whole play in Spanish now comes the time to make it work in English, and of course some bits are not just lost in translation, they were just never there to begin with.”

Mission Paradox Blog – The experience of free
“If someone wants you to perform in an artistic event, “for the exposure”, then I think you are obligated to find what that means.”

Little Angel Theatre Blog – Intern Report: Holly
“I feel that my experience interning at Little Angel Theatre has been really valuable to me, helping me learn more about the theatre industry, experience in a producing house which I’d never had before…”

West End Whingers – Review Love Never Dies, Adelphi Theatre
“The Whingers love having a look at a show’s merchandise. Where was it? Nowhere. Not a mug nor a pinny in sight! We don’t buy it ourselves of course, but it’s comforting to know that it’s there if we ever change our minds.”