Tuesday, March 23, 2010

FrontRow » Blog Archive » Mike Daisey: Dallas Theater Center Gift Good, But Not Enough On Its Own:

UPDATE: From the DTC:

An acting company-specific endowment does not exist, and the Brierley’s gift does not exclusively support the acting company. Rather, as stated in the press release, it “will support DTC’s artistic programming, which includes its commitment to productions of classics, new plays and musicals of the highest caliber, meaningful community partnerships, and a resident company of professional actors.”

The acting company is a part of DTC’s artistic programming, and the Brierley’s gift will support the artistic programming as a whole. DTC renamed the resident acting company to the Brierley Resident Acting Company to acknowledge the gift and honor the Brierleys.

Unfortunate—not only is this not a lockboxed endowment for artist salaries, but there is no endowment to speak of that is specified for salaries.

It's still good news—don't get me wrong—but this points up the importance of holding the line for real change, and that we're a long way off. It's too bad the naming rights for the acting company were sold off for money that is not specified to go only to actor salaries.