In his Post for the Howlround this morning, playwright Mat Smart freakishly managed to disregard class, privilege, sexism, racism within American theater institutions (and kind of in America in general if you think about it) while offending many next-generation theater artists who work hard on an every day basis in NYC and beyond. I agree with playwright Joshua Conkel when he wrote in his response on the Youngblog , “I’m not exactly sure if this post is a response to my post about class and the theater or not, but it still makes me want to kick in a fucking window” (see http://leahwinkler.org/2011/02/23/inadvertent-deep-facebook-debate-between-nyc-theatre-artists/ and http://leahwinkler.org/2011/03/04/some-fun-things-going-on-in-the-internetland/ to catch up).
After Mr. Smart points out that he is a “straight white male” who “likes to like to write linear plays with dramatic action and a climax where the protagonist makes a decision that changes him or her irrevocably” ( congrats on going to theater school, dude) in his condescending post, he proceeds to insinuate that ‘emerging’ playwrights are failing because they are untalented and lazy; non-committal and defeatist. According to Mr. Smart, all that we really need to do is, like him, work hard and love your craft. AS IF WE ARE NOT ALREADY DOING THAT!!!
My favorite response to this article comes from playwright Kari Bentley-Quinn. Check it out.
