Just Wrought

Recovering playwright, once won a STRANGER Genius Award for theater. Now writing a bloated novel about… G-d help me! Theatre.

At Least One of Our Theatre Critics is also a Journalist

Written by

jefferyr

in

,

Brendan Kiley just broke some more substantiated details on the crisis at Intiman Theatre over at The Stranger’s Slog.

So my question for The Seattle Times would be, where was Misha Berson on all this? 

There’s an old joke about the Seattle ethos of crippling “niceness”.

In Chicago, the car behind you will honk as soon as the light turns green.

In New York, the car behind on you will honk exactly one second before the light turns green.

In Seattle, the light can cycle through green yellow red… green yellow red… green yellow red… forever before anyone will discover that you’ve keeled over dead of a heart attack.

So, was Misha just going to wait until a press release was pushed out? Or should our only surviving daily newspaper step up and occasionally do some shoe-leather arts reporting  without solely relying on the story the perpetrators choose to tell us?

Comments

4 responses to “At Least One of Our Theatre Critics is also a Journalist”

  1. COMTE

    Ugh, if this information is correct, then Intiman has spent 2/3 of its endowment in the past 18 months (it was just under $3 mm at the end of their 2008 FY, which ended April 30, 2009). That’s indicative of a tremendous cash bleed-out, one that simply can’t be maintained. At this rate, they’ll have burned through what’s left of their endowment by early next year, assuming they can even continue operations that long, which seems increasingly unlikely.
    At this rate, people are going to start walking out of the building with anything of value – wonder who’s going to sneak that Tony out under their coat?
    So sad, and so needless…

    Reply
  2. Scot Augustson

    Hey Chris,
    I’m fiscally challenged, so perhaps you can enlighten me:
    Isn’t the point of an endowment that you aren’t supposed to touch the principal?

    Reply
  3. kilngoddess

    Ha, ha, good joke. When I was in high school and learning to drive we went into Chicago to practice before the exam. I had stopped at a light and was talking to the instructor about which was to go. The light had turned green and before I could make a move, a voice on a loudspeaker behind me said “PLEASE MOVE ALONG YOU ARE BLOCKING TRAFFIC.” Cop with a loudspeaker on his car and there was no one behind him.
    And goodonya for calling Misha ‘the maybe a bit to comfortable in her lofty position’ Berson out on this.

    Reply
  4. COMTE

    Weird, thought I posted this already, but anywho –
    In answer to your question Scot, ideally the amount withdrawn from an endowment fund shouldn’t be more than what it generates in interest or dividend income; the principle should NEVER be touched, except in the most dire of circumstances, which clearly this is, otherwise, you’re defeating the entire purpose of setting up the endowment in the first place, namely, to provide means of ensuring the organization’s long-term financial stability.
    If, as has been reported, Intiman has been forced to essentially gut their endowment just to pay the bills, then it simply speaks to the desperateness of their situation and can only lead one to the conclusion that they’re sacrificing long-term stability for the sake of short-term survival.
    I guess, if you’re on the brink of going under, it’s hard to think in the long-term, but at the same time, it’s also quite literally digging your own grave.

    Reply

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