Why do we stay?

My friend and colleague, Ami Sallee Corley (a superb actress who's played the leads in my plays "Waiting on Sean Flynn" and "Delusion of Darkness" at Tampa's Jobsite Theater), has been invited to begin blogging on the arts for Tampa's Website "Creative Loafing." Her first column asks a question that I think artists in Portland...and in Minneapolis, Seattle, Austin, etc., can identify with, which is: when it's so tough to make a living from your art in your community, why stay?

Why do we stay?

(Possible Answer: It's Tampa. The cigars, of course.)

Next weekend, representatives from the Dramatists Guild are coming to Portland to hold a Playwrights/Theatre Town Hall Meeting, and this may well be a pertinent question to ask, given that they have members in communities across the country and are privy to this dilemma and the many ways artists have found to address it.

Steve