This spring, Stranger writer Brendan Kiley oversaw a series of columns wherein the artistic directors of four of Seattle's bigger theaters "justified the existence" of their artistic organizations. Response to the columns was predominately positive (notable exception: pg. 9), with a number of thus-far-unfeatured artistic directors offering themselves up to the glare of the Kiley spotlight.

Prior to soliciting further justifications from further artistic directors, The Stranger has enlisted me, Addison DeWitt, to review the quartet of columns that have run thus far, with hopes of sussing out what, if anything, we have learned.

Unfortunately, the answer to this question is essentially negligible, as the gulf between well-expressed intention and successful execution is wide and treacherous--just ask Empty Space artistic director Allison Narver, whose inspiring eloquence on the value of experimental art is cruelly undermined by the results of the Space's last few experiments (particularly Susan Finque's much-bemoaned (L)imitations of Life, the worst thing to happen to political art since the McCarthy era).

But I'm not here to criticize Allison Narver, or any of the other artistic directors who gamely submitted themselves to questioning. (We'll leave such criticism to others, such as the letter writer on pg. 9.) Overall, Narver's column left her smelling like a rose--anyone smart enough to pitch funding an artsy nonprofit theater with canny for-profit business arrangements (as an example, Narver suggested an alliance with HBO, which would receive first-refusal for new works) is on the right track, in my book.

Coming in a close second to Allison Narver was ACT's Kurt Beattie, who not only referenced Joseph Campbell while describing his theater as a "semi-permeable membrane," but also commissioned a new play from Steven Dietz that looks to be the first ACT production to make deliberate use of the building's space-rich layout (Dietz's play will occur in two theaters simultaneously, with one cast moving between two audiences) and sounds superduper fun.

The column series' remaining two artistic directors--Intiman's Bartlett Sher and Seattle Repertory's Sharon Ott--head two of the most board-beholden theaters in town, a fact made evident to all who read Sher's impassioned calls for artistic risk and his blunt denunciation of audience-pandering crap, only to see Intiman open its season with a road-tested cash cow based on a coffee-table book expounding the notion that African-American women are the world's most interesting hat stands. As for Sharon Ott: The figurehead queen of the Rep obviously has some deep problems with Scandinavians, but she more than gets hers in the letters section (pg. 9).

Brendan Kiley will continue his series of interviews with Seattle's artistic directors in the coming weeks. In the meantime, send suggestions, questions, and demands to theaternews@thestranger.com.