Daisey, Daisey

I’m going to give American Theatre the benefit of the doubt that by the time news broke that Mike Daisey had lied about his experiences in China and that “This American Life” had retracted its story about The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, the April issue had already gone to print and it was too late to add this context to Daisey’s essay on activism (“The Sin of Activism”). I’m less inclined to give Daisey such benefit, though I’d like to believe that had there been time he would at least have revised his statement about “giving my information freely to whomever could help,” since he seems to have withheld as much information as he gave. 

Regardless, I would encourage American Theatre to devote part of a future issue to the full story of Daisey’s activism. I would be interested to learn more about how other theatremakers feel about the tension between what Daisey might call “journalistic truth” and “theatrical truth,” not only in his work but in their own. If nothing else, I think you owe your readers a fuller context.

Brent Englar
Baltimore, Md.

Editor’s note: See News in Brief, “Agony and Ecstasy Version 2.0,” May/June ’12. Also, video footage of a panel on activism at TCG’s National Conference in June, featuring Daisey in conversation with other artists, will be posted at www.tcg.org/conference.

Notes on Havel

In her article on the late Václav Havel (Feb. ’12), Carol Rocamora wrote: “Then the fairy tale ended. The Czech and Slovak states separated….” The peaceful separation of the Czechs and Slovaks should be regarded as one of the high points of Havel’s career, not the end of a “fairy tale.” Although there were some on both sides who opposed the disunion of the two countries that had been arbitrarily bound together in the aftermath of World War I, for the Slovaks the creation of their own country was the fulfillment of a thousand-year-old dream. For centuries they had suffered the suppression of their language and culture by their Hungarian overlords. In union with the Czechs, many felt they were treated as the poor relation. A potential conflict was avoided, and instead of a bloody civil war like the ones that engulfed the former Yugoslavia, the creation of independent Czech and Slovak states was settled with a handshake.

David Eliet, professor of playwriting
Stonehill College
Easton, Mass.

Strolling Not Advised

There are numerous oversights in your May/June issue’s spotlight on the Toronto theatre scene (“Toronto in August”), but what shocked me most as a Toronto resident for over 20 years was the recommendation that readers “wander the streets of Regent Park.” Regent Park has many things to offer, including perhaps the highest crime rate in the greater Toronto area. Unfortunately, within this economically depressed community, visitors are noticed immediately and too often targeted for their perceived affluence. Suggesting that your readers stroll the streets, without at least cautioning them, is setting them up for some very real dangers. Do a quick web search for Regent Park yourself, and find statements such as these: “Regent Park…experiences a higher rate of violence, crime, drug abuse and social ills compared to many other Toronto communities.” I am disappointed by the lack of due diligence in this article, and I hope no harm comes from it. 

F.A. Chevalier
Toronto

Name Changer

Thank you for your comprehensive survey of theatre and playwriting in English-Canada and Quebec. Your contributors’ highlighting of productions at the Stratford and Shaw Festivals and in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal gives a good indication of the diversity and vitality of current Canadian theatre production. Ironically, as Chantal Bilodeau discusses in “Bridging the Two Solitudes,” there are now no Canadian publications that provide such ongoing coverage of theatre and playwriting across Canada. Would you consider changing the title of American Theatre to North American Theatre and reporting on theatre in both our countries? I am eagerly looking forward to such a development.

Anton Wagner, secretary
Canadian Theatre Critics Association
Toronto

Corrections

The headline of a tribute to the late Jiri Zizka (May/June) should have identified his birth year as 1953, not 1948.

“A friendly Canadian reader” points out that in the May/June issue, the locations of two Canadian organizations were erroneous. The Banff Centre is in Banff, not Calgary, and Alberta Theatre Projects is in Calgary, not Edmonton.