Stealing ideas about actors' day jobs ...

... and from Christopher Piatt, as Melodie Bahan suggests (as discussed in a previous post).

(See her final paragraph.)

On the model of Piatt's articles, we could ask:

Is theater in Spokane is too white? How do the road shows that pass through the INB Center both help and hurt local theaters? And how about a photo essay on local actors' day jobs?

1. It can't just be the familiar complaint about how Spokane in general is too white, but rather how and why did Onyx Theater fall into abeyance, and what could be done to improve a white audience's access to theater that reflects cultures other than their own?

2. Local theater folks will say, oh, yes, the big shows raise the attention threshold for theater in general in town. But will they go on record about how (if it's true) that road shows diminish audiences on weekend nights when they're in town? And how do we get the 2,000+ who fill seats in the INB Center (capacity 2,600) night after night for, say, *Spamalot* to fill just 330 seats at the Civic or 250 at Interplayers? And don't big shows create an assumption in the casual theatergoer that drama means spectacle, and that if it's five people just talking in a room -- well, then, that's boring?

3. On this one, local actors, Bobo needs your help: What are your day jobs like? Willing to be photographed doing them and interviewed about the sacrifices you make from 9 to 5 so you can practice your addic ... hobby from 6 to 10? Can The Inlander get anything near as good (refer to Bahan's example) of a prominent local actor dressed up in a job uniform? (Recall that Patrick Treadway drove to the Tri-Cities to endure "costumiliation" as a dancing pop bottle.)



[ drawing: from Tennessee Sierra Club, urging YOU to recycle ... ]