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Volume 24, Number 3 (1993) THEATER
UP FRONT
Questions and Answers
Big Cheap Update
Compiled by David B. Feiner
The work of turning "out there" into out here has begun. In last Issue's "Up Front,"
Erik Ehn called on the small experimental companies that dot the map of American theater to
assemble. he proposed an Art Workers' Hostelry, "a national service organization that provides
art exchanges between small nonprofit theaters," by sending seed teams of artists from one
progressive company to another to restage productions. AWH would raise funds nationally, but
much of its activities ideally would be made possible through barter.
Below are excerpts of some responses Theater has received from leaders of the
out theres. All these companies are devoted to AWH's aims: to bring experimental new
work longer life and wider audiences; to further the development of a critical vocabulary
responsive to such work; to foster collaboration between like-minded and often marginalized
companies, with the aim of creating an organic national repertory company for experimental
theater.
The next step is to get representatives from possible AWH participants talking. To that end,
the University of Iowa will provide space for a Fall '94 gathering at which AWH could progress
from planning to building. If nothing else, it would fulfill at least one of AWH's most important
goals; to bring together artistically independent theaters and "make their experiments in poetry
and reproach better known to one another and the country." -- D.B.F.
* * *
Annex Theater, Seattle
Here is the node you who hate change and fear revolution. Keep these two
squatting men apart, make them hate, fear and suspect each other. Here is the analogy of the
thing you fear. This is the zygote. For here 'I lost my land' is changed; a cell is split and from its
splitting grows the thing you hate -- 'We lost our land.' The danger is here, for two men are not
as lonely and perplexed as one. And from this first 'we' there grows a more dangerous thing: 'I
have a little food' plus 'I have none.' If from this problem the sum is 'We have a little food,' the
thing is on its way, the movement has direction. Only a little multiplication now and this land, this
tractor are ours. The two men squatting in a ditch, the little fire, the side-meat stewing in a single
pot. The silent, stone-eyed women; behind them the children listening with their souls to words
their minds do not understand. The night draws down. The baby has a cold. Here, take his
blanket. It's wool. It was my Mother's blanket. This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning
-- from 'I' to 'We.'" -- (from The Grapes of Wrath)
Allison Narver, Artistic Director
Hillsborough Moving Company, Ybor City, FL
I read Erik's essay when the magazine arrived at my bookstore, out of
which I also run my
theater... Here are my BIG CHEAP ANSWERS to your questions about AWH:
The idea of an AWH is a terrific one and The Hillsborough Moving Company would
wholeheartedly do everything we could to facilitate/participate. We are into the idea of a network
of artists sharing like philosophies: i.e., that experimental theater does still exist and most of it is
big and cheap and maybe we like it that way. The AWH could function not only as a means of
restaging productions, but as a foundation for the creation of new works developed by two
companies using combined resources. Such collaborations would be a welcome source of
inspiration and divergence. AWH could also lead to expanded press and critical exposure, which
would not only benefit our companies, but would also bring a broader view of the national theater
world to each community. A video library would be an essential factor. Why didn't someone
think of this before?... We could probably conceive a lot of reasons for AWH to fail but if we
approached our productions from such a perspective none of them would ave ever seen the light
of day...
Val Day, Artistic Director
Cucaracha Theatre, New York City
I love the idea of small avant-garde theaters forming a nationwide network, cooperating,
collaborating, trading productions and raising money together. Exposing Cucaracha's work to
different audiences would be wonderful. Working in downtown New York it's easy to lost track
not only of what the rest of the country is like but of what audiences are like above 14th Street.
I'd love to go to Tulsa and do a play...
...The grass-roots, community-linked, service-barter approach Erik described is a provocative
proposition but I'm not convinced a good deal of fund raising won't still be necessary. Putting up
visiting companies is possible, although not easy in New York, where we live matchboxes. But
getting in-kind contributions and free air fares an so on would create an enormous amount of time
and additional work for already over-stretched staffs. Bartering services in lieu of spending cash
might become so labor-intensive as to prove impractical.
I think, ultimately, somebody will have to step forward and make this their project --
somebody not bogged down with running a theater company -- somebody who will raise the
money and coordinate the participating theaters...
Richard Caliban, Artistic Director
Undermain Theater, Dallas
...YES, I THINK AWH WILL WORK. What will it take to get it going? Erik has identified
the first element, the theaters that are going the work... I have always been a proponent of
theaters forming caucuses that bring a like group of people together. Enough of TCG, which
serves only the big Constituent members. How about an organization that links small theaters
that share solidarity of spirit?
What we must do now is find a leader with the unique vision of a poet, someone who has the
creativity to throw out traditional notions of what is possible and allow the train to jump the
track. Someone who can be a business-manager/facilitator/new-age-shaman to guide the group
and make decisions, without taking the already overburdened artistic directors [of member
theaters].
...Most of the possible constituents fall into the Broke By Choice category, but the artists
who work for those theaters still have to support their families and themselves. Leaving town
would have to be limited to the few artists on salary or in a work environment liberal enough to
allow them to walk away from their jobs for two to three weeks or longer... Or perhaps AWH
could provide a small stipend to those in need, to avoid the prejudice of exclusion because of
poverty.
Erik's notions of trade and barter are very refreshing but might prove impractical in a city
[such as Dallas, which is] built on money and The Deal. Dallas does not have the liberal,
progressive environment that San Francisco enjoys (though we do have an environment uniquely
welcoming to pioneering spirits). I would suggest some tinkering with the AWH to accommodate
different geographic considerations...
Raphael Parry, Artisctic Director
Tulsa Theatreworks, Tulsa FL
In Tulsa, the phrase "experimental theater" is nearly redundant; here, audiences are likely to
regard as "avant-garde" any production that doesn't include Broadway show tunes or Neil Simon
one-liners. It is an atmosphere that engenders a disconcerting sense of isolation. Accordingly, the
notion of connecting with theaters from other areas that have similar operating structures and
operating goals is highly appealing to us... Theatreworks clearly would benefit greatly from sort
of umbrella organization that would facilitate the sharing of scripts as well as exchanges of
relevant ideas gleaned from the experiences of other fringe theaters...
We would like to see the AWH structured to allow inclusion of theaters in a variety of stages
of development. Theatreworks is in only its second season. We opened our first production in a
community which traditionally had been supportive of the arts but which had essentially no
existing audience for experimental theater. We are still in the process of developing in local
theatergoers a framework for appreciating unfamiliar stage work; moreover, we are currently
working entirely with artists and administrators who rely exclusively on day jobs for their
incomes. At this point, it would be extremely difficult for us to assemble groups of artists who
could afford to spend four to six weeks out of town -- most of the people we work with don't
have the opportunity to leave their jobs for periods of such length.
Not that Theatreworks would not have anything to contribute to the AWH. We would make
available to other constituent theaters scripts that we develop. We would be happy to host a team
from another theater... It would be wonderful to feel that there was some sort of cohesion to
out here, that the work we do could have some impact beyond each of our separate
wildernesses...
Bret Masterson, Artistic Director
Postscript: The Next Step
We're mid-step of the step; i.e., to be as we are in front of each other.
Conceive of our status quo as a dialogue with a particular audience: the assembled
ratty masses -- ourselves. So, for example, Scott Feldsher from Sledgehammer has this NEA
observership gig -- perhaps as he shakes hands across the country he is slipping a shiny snail-trail
of identity behind him that others of the Assembly may follow. I'm on my way up to Annex with
the Saint Plays, and I will do what I can to expand and explore AWH methodology
through the experience. Val Day is working on a new piece with Mac Wellman, an ur-circuit
rider/writer.
This step will land and then there's the step after that: a face to face meeting out of which
will come concrete proposals for the sharing of work and workers. I hope that the University of
Iowa's offer of a meeting space for September 1994 will bring together a group of 15 or so
theatermakers. The task of sneeching (begging and bartering) plane fares, beds and food to get
and keep us there is under way. Allison Narver and Andrea Allen at Annex have come forward
with an offer to sere as signal boosters and contact people.
The investigation of new forms of assembly (as artists and audiences) is naturally related to
questions of money, worship, and ethics. As we move forward into a territory where art, service,
economic reproach, and uncensored witness are able to operate in the precence of one another,
weneed to evolve our Esperanto: a language that is fully aesthetic and fully political without a
need for translation or exaggerated similes.
Erik Ehn
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