Prop 8: I’m Spartacus! No, I’m Scott Eckern!

That’s what I felt like yelling during last November’s horrifying public shaming of a theatre executive in California.  Scott Eckern, the Artistic Director of Sacramento Music Theatre, was forced to resign after the public revelation that he donated $1,000 to the Prop. 8 campaign.  I felt like calling all of my friends in the theatre industry and saying “I’M SCOTT ECKERN!”  I felt like responding to all of the e-mails I received from my colleagues urging me to join the drive to remove him from his post by saying:  “I’M SCOTT ECKERN!”  “If you take him, you should take me! ” Like all those slaves standing in solidarity with Spartacus.  I was also an executive in the industry with similar views.  There but for the grace of God….

But I didn’t stand up and shout.  I didn’t because I am a coward.  I didn’t because I have children and a mortgage and I might need the next job that comes along so I keep my mouth shut.

But make no mistake, there are many of us working in the theatre industry and the spectacle that was Scott Eckern’s ouster was terrifying and enraging to us.  Many readers of Big Hollywood suggest that as long as we are effective in our jobs and we “put butts in seats” then we should have the courage to speak out and fight for our beliefs even if we are a minority in a hostile environment….  I hope this morality tale speaks to you…

I was fortunate enough to witness this witch-hunt from inside the Facebook bubble that helped create it.  You see, one of my friends, actress Susan Egan, circulated an open letter to all of her friends.  And then her friends circulated it to their friends and well, by now you know what happened.  Her letter has been reported many times and she seems proud of her involvement in this episode.  She actually wrote her initial letter and then, within 24 hours wrote a follow-up.  The full text of Susan Egan’s original letter can be found here.   Her follow-up letter is harder to come by, but it contains much more revealing information.  In the spirit of “full context” I include the entire second letter here:  (my comments follow below)

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