In this episode I take a look at the not so shocking news that Scott Rudin has stepped down from whatever position he held on Broadway. I don't really know what his position was, though I have read it several times by now; it does not really matter to me because no one knows your name unless you are a big shot on Broadway. That is the way the people who created Broadway designed it. It is an exclusive club that only the "best" actors have access to, never mind the fact that so many talented actors go completely unnoticed; Broadway says who is best, and that is simply all there is to it. I had always found processes like method acting and even, to a certain extent, realism to be extremely cult like when put into practice. The idea of using emotional trauma from one's past to evoke an emotion in a scene someone will most likely watch while changing a child's diaper has always seemed a bit extreme to me. However, this is what is expected; this is how you prove you are a good actor in the modern theater. It is not enough to simply be a hard worker; you can't even just be talented. You have to have the right look at the right time for the right producers and designers. Obviously they do not even come close to making the best choice for the roles. How could they? They all think alike because they want to make a quick, easy profit. It's the George Lucas model, but for the stage. Why waste your time with quality acting when you can slap together some CG and call it a day? The computer graphics on stage are human bodies, and they are treated as such. They must look perfect in particular lighting. Actors are often criticized for their appearance, especially when they stray from the hulk of flesh they were originally cast as. You are nothing more than eye candy when you are an actor, and the Broadway elite make that more than apparent with their almost offended gawks every time you are the wrong skin color for whatever role you are auditioning for, forced to swallow yet another one of their bitter lies: lies about future opportunities, lies about how wonderful they think you are, lies about how they hope you will try out next time...There is always a next time with such people. There is always some excuse as to why whatever you did failed to satisfy them. It's amazing that the audience has no say in such decisions. It is downright perplexing that Broadway keeps making the same boring shows with the same actors. It, however, makes perfect sense that Scott Rudin was the abusive wretch that he has finally been exposed as. Taking vulnerable people and putting them into situations where they are forced to compromise their dignity for their job is just despicable on pretty much any level you could think of. I don't care if some conservative takes this as a leftist institution crumbling because there is nothing leftist about Broadway. It is the same work till you get sick, suffer and die attitude that permeates the rest of America. The idea of some the theater being some carefree place for communist is just a right wing fantasy. Leftists like me have no one fighting for us in Broadway. Even the actor strikes do not bring any change because the strikes only deal with unions, and union actors get everything they want. That is always the way. That is why they intentionally make it too expensive to obtain for people like me, to keep people like me off of Broadway. But the people who make it, ironically, are treated no better. They are abused and torn down, broken like some sort of wild mare, and with just the same amount of cruelty. The allegations against Rudin and people like him are disturbing, including reports of physical, mental and sexual abuse. It is high time we become more critical of the people hiding behind the scenes of beloved institutions such as Broadway. We all know that absolute power corrupts, yet we do not seem to think that this seeps into entertainment and media, even as these companies continue to monopolize.