hungry dogs

Playwright Wallace Shawn (left) wants a new audience. He says:

'Most people who go to plays are people who love theatre, which means people who love theatre the way it is right now, which in a way doesn’t include me.'

He finds just the sort of audience he's after when he goes to hear Naomi Klein do a book reading for The Shock Doctrine.

'The people in the audience were like hungry dogs being thrown meat by Naomi Klein. They were leaning forward so far they were practically on the stage. And they were responding to every word that she said. And they were just very, very, very alive. I wanted to stand up and say, “Hey, I’m doing a play tomorrow, why don’t you all come to it, I’ll give you free tickets!” Because I can tell you, a lot of the people who were there, I’m going to bet that they go to between zero and one play a year. Closer to zero.'