Editorial: Performance in an Age of Gross Incompetence

A drive toward professionalism animates a large section of the theatre and performance industry, but it also has its critics. Stefano Harvey and Fred Moten worry that professionalization has taken over cultural institutions, particularly the university, where the pursuit of knowledge has been replaced by ruthless careerism (26). Similarly, Olivier Choinière writes about the damaging culture of grants that turns artists into administrators. “Administration is eating away at us,” he claims. “It prevents us from thinking like artists” (30). But if professionalism directs energy away from creativity toward marketability, should we embrace its opposite: incompetence?