Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Modern Fabulousity: ModFabulous 2008: The Best In Theatre:

If 2008 had a Performer of the Year, it was certainly monologuist Mike Daisey, who leaped from regional acclaim to national recognition with not one but TWO solo tour de forces. In October, Daisey took apart America's addiction to fear and war at the Public Theater (If You See Something Say Something). But it was his spring piece, How Theatre Failed America, that ignited controversy across the entire theatrical industry. Part history, part indictment, Daisey's lucid, critical analysis of the regional theatre movement was much more than agitprop or self-reflexive navel gazing. By discussing art, it created art; in the act of discussing theatre's failure to challenge and engage the citizenry, it offered a special magnetism that can only be discovered in performance. A major new talent has arrived.