I’m reading this again and again, and I’m unsure what the fuss is all about. Having read through both Matt Trueman (read here) and Mark Shenton’s posts (read here) on ‘Stunt Casting’, I feel a deep urge to say something.

The news is that a Youtuber / famous vlogger has been cast in the play Confidence at the Southwark Playhouse. To Shenton it begs the question, ‘if anyone with a big Instagram and Twitter following can be thrown into the lead of a play, what’s the point of real actors learning and honing their craft?’ Fair enough, I can see where he’s coming from, but, now, I have to ask, is there a particular reason why the director Rob Drummer picked the vlogger to perform the lead role in the first place? Trueman notes it is to fill seats by those aged 15 to 25 who are more likely to be looking at Snapchat than checking out what’s going on in the theatre world. ‘It holds the key to theatre’s future.’

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