Re: RAT Collaborations question

["Bottom's Dream" <bottomsdream@linkline.com>]

Daniel,
Next year in Los Angeles,ASK theatre projects and LA County Arts Commission 
are producing a 3 play season with 3 different theatre companies doing a 
play from a chosen list as a subscription season. They will bill it, this 
is a guess, as three of the community's most risk taking 
theatres.(aka..,adventurous,edgy,best...etc..)They hope it will build 
audiences, amongst other things for these intimate theatres. This all 
doesn't go into the main point of your inquiry..where are the audiences? 
We've all been dealing with this issue. I, myself, started thinking about 
RAT as my audience, because they are the most interested in our work. Then 
others followed. But that's small minded to some degree.Bottom's Dream has 
stayed small and has survived.Survival and flourishing may be two different 
things.(maybe not) The audiences have been distracted and you got to figure 
out what will get them back into your theatre. It's a national issue, but 
one that in my opinion has to be battled in each theatre community. Rage on 
Daniel.By identifying an issue for yourself and sharing it with RATs you've 
taken a first step toward solution. How can LA help you? maybe collaborate 
with theatres from outside Boston. Bring em in for a week or two. Do 
something in your community that other independent companies aren't. I like 
outside collaborations as a flare out to the audience. "Hey it's not just 
Boston theatre idiot, it's national!!! Bottom's Dream comes to Boston! 
Boston comes to Bottom's Dream in LA or Seattle or Austin, Mpls., use this 
rat list to find similar sensibilities and collaborate!!! That is one of 
the reasons RAT was formed in a loose way. Playwright and script 
sharing,collaborations....it can be done if it can be done small.

-mitchell