Friday, February 15, 2013

ArtsEmerson ignites TNT Festival of contemporary theater - Theater & art - The Boston Globe:

One festival participant who’s already well known to Boston audiences is Daisey, who’ll perform “American Utopias” Friday and Saturday on the Paramount’s main stage. The monologist was already penciled in on ArtsEmerson’s schedule before the festival was set, and tickets to his show are not included in festival passes.

Orchard has a longstanding relationship with Daisey, and says he wasn’t put off by the controversy that erupted in 2012 over fabrications in Daisey’s “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” for which the performer eventually apologized.

“There’s an example of an artist who is evolving in ways that come from both positive and negative experiences, as we all do,” Orchard says. “I totally and fully and confidently back Mike Daisey the artist. If I was bringing in Mike Daisey as a journalist, I would have some second thoughts. But I’m not.”