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Dear Rats--
With great interest I've been following the
on-going discussion on the trials and tribulations of audience-building for
fringe-type theater, not only because I've been there/done that (and probably
will again) but because I'm in the beginning stages of preparing an in-depth
feature article on that subject for an alternative news magazine (Port Folio
Weekly) here in Hampton Roads, VA. The purpose of my article is to explore
the vanishing support in our culture--i.e., public/private funding and paying
customers--for the innovative, unconventional, disaffected, or otherwise
"cutting-edge" in the performing and visual arts, primarily, but such
is the potential range of this subject that I expect I'll end up concentrating on just theater, with a few words, perhaps,
spent on dance.
The discussion could include all manner of
considerations, including philosophic pot-shots at the philistines, but what I'm
essentially interested in is the cultural dynamic--why, with all the wealth we
hear is being created these days, the cash stream to new, experimental,
extra-bourgeois art is drying up, as it becomes increasingly difficult to keep
small companies alive or, in general, to show new and especially non-conforming
work. What does this say about us as a culture? What does it say about the arts,
about theater, as a cultural form?
I think that's about as coherently as I can
state my purpose at this stage.
What I'd like are the thoughts of you RATS on
this subject, especially regarding your own experiences of both success and
failure, as touched upon in the original discussion on the hoops you have to
jump through to get audiences, which I found profoundly instructive, speaking
for itself. I'd also like your permission--or not, if you want to be
off-the-record--to quote you. Don't post on the main list unless you want to but
e-mail me privately at namewon@whro.net.
I'll answer all replies that come there. And thanks ahead of time for your
insights.
D.D. Delaney
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