Serious repertory = theatrical health

If a stellar cast of British and American actors can present *The Cherry Orchard* and *The Winter's Tale* in repertory, and if Mary-Louise Parker can star in *Hedda Gabler* all at the same time, then there's reason to be optimistic about the state of serious, non-musical theater in New York.
The public is indeed smarter than it's given credit for.
Now, how about here in the provinces? Do carefully observed, intelligent work in the theater, and somehow it will find an audience. Even in what we self-defeatingly seem to assume is a backwater.

photo from The Observer: Cate Blanchett as Hedda Gabler at B.A.M. in 2006