An artist speaks back to bullying directors

This is from an open letter by Phelim McDermott, a director at Improbable, which has staged productions at the Met, ENO and Sydney Opera House:

Let’s try and break this cycle where performers want revenge for what was done to them. I say this because it’s making theatre bad and it’s making our rehearsal rooms uncreative. Did you know that fear isn’t just isolated to your rehearsal room? It’s infecting other rehearsal rooms too. Our rehearsal rooms can become a place where performers are so bruised that they can’t feel their own bodies anymore. They are so removed from their own sensitivities that they aren’t aware of the atmosphere they are creating because they have been made too afraid to play. It’s a place where they aren’t being supported to trust their own impulses and in turn don’t trust others. It’s taking us into a downward spiral of the lowest common denominator.

Full, fascinating letter here.