Theatre Director Edward Hall Criticizes ACE Funding Cuts

UK Theatre director Edward Hall, who left the UK to become Artistic Director at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, is criticizing the UK's arts funding system. 

Read the full story on The Times. 

Hall moved to the US after almost a decade of running the Hampstead Theatre and 25 years since founding the Propeller Theatre Company.

He stated, "I think the arts subsidy [in Britain] has been eroded so badly, and the debate about what it is and what it means has been removed from the public forum in a really bad way. It has been brutalised over the last decade." 

He continued, "I hope in the future we get more funding back into the arts because once it is gone, it is gone and it takes a long time to rebuild it. In not too long a time we will be suddenly be going, ‘Where are the great artists to fill our big institutions?'"

Hall is one of the many theatre workers commenting on the industry. Actor, playwright, and director Kwame Kwei-Armah previously stated, "The system is fundamentally flawed and something needs to be done about it.” 

Read more HERE.