2amt Podcast: Truth in Theatre

As Adam Feldman pointed out this week on the Time Out New York site: “(Mike) Daisey acknowledged that he had erred in presenting his work—a hard-hitting look at the brutal Chinese labor conditions that underwrite our sleek electronic gizmos—on Ira Glass’s series because ‘the tools of theater are not the same as the tools of journalism.'”

Adam convened a panel of prominent artists and journalists to talk about veracity, ethics and artistic license in nonfiction-based or documentary theatre. The panel featured writer-director Steven Cosson of the Civilians (This Beautiful City), playwright-performers Jessica Blank (The Exonerated) and Taylor Mac (The Young Ladies of…), and critic-reporters Peter Marks (Washington Post) and Jason Zinoman (The New York Times).

Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater, prefaced the panel with a short statement. You can read that statement here.

The panel took place Thursday night, March 22, 2012 at the Public Theater in New York, where Daisey’s “Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” just closed. We would like to thank the Public for their generous donation of the space. We would also like to thank John Kemp, Gabriel Bennett & Arielle Edwards of the Public Theatre for providing the audio.

Note: In the interest of full disclosure, for anyone at the event who wondered about the late start, it was due to Adam, the panelists and Mr. Eustis getting stuck in the elevator on their way up to the event. We don’t have audio of this, alas.