During Economic Storm, It's Sunny in Seattle

Theatre artists in the Great Northwest seem unbeaten and unbowed by the economy. The Seattle Times reported Sunday that several have started companies in the Puget Sound area despite the unrelentingly bad news these days. What does it take to forge ahead despite the long hours and longer odds?

The usual suspects: The twin blessings of youth and ignorance; hard work; and a specific idea or theme around which you build your company. It also takes plenty of optimism: "We have an incredible creative community here," Andrew Fife, the director of an arts-support organization, told the Times' Misha Berson, "and I really think our best days are ahead of us."

It also takes playing space, and the news out of Chicago doesn't seem as uplifting. After five years of a building and theatre boom, companies report having to share theatres to survive, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Thanks to ArtsJournal.com for pointing us toward those stories.

SURVIVAL-JOB BLUES: As if getting acting jobs weren't hard enough, two stories paint a grim picture on the survival-job front. Research firm NPD Group polled consumers to ask what they were cutting back on to save money. The number one answer? Survey said, "Dining out," at 57 percent. This could mean bad news for waiters, bartenders, and hostesses out there. (There was a silver lining in the survey: The last thing folks are cutting back on is video games. So there should still be a lot of voiceover work out there.) The other bad news? The number of online job postings for New York City are at their lowest levels since January 2006, Crain's New York reports.

IT'S NOT ALL BAD: Variety offers some good news: Studios have set an ambitious film schedule for 2009, despite the economy and threat of a SAG strike. (Remember that? Neither do we, much.) Also, AMC has green-lit another pilot, Rectify. What's it about? Cue the Don LaFontaine voiceover: A man, wrongly accused, is freed from prison and now tries to set the record straight. It could be worse. At first glance, we thought it was about a proctologist. Actually, we shouldn't be mocking at all. The executive producer is Mark Johnson, show-runner for Breaking Bad, AMC's other hit (besides Mad Men).

--Andrew Salomon