RE: RAT Money, value and art

[brad rothbart <scrdchao@nni.com>]

>I don't quite know how to respond.  The bottom line--I am unimpressed with
>the big, fianced theatre that I see.  I think of a section of Julian Beck's
>Life in the Theatre where he's talking to someone or other about some money
>they have tucked away to do shows and the person says "I wish you had no
>money at all" and explains that it would force him to innovate more.
>

  The  quote was from Robert Edmond Jones, a wonderful designer. 
Regardless,  Julian was completely torn a. about money. As much as he 
despised the system of " hated labor"- he was always meeting with 
people, always raising money- from  private donors, The Ford 
Foundation,  the Soviet Communist Party... Great article called 
Julian  Beck: Businessman, about all of this.

  The reason  you are unimpressed with big, financed theatre is not 
because of the money, but the use it's put to. Most  regional theater 
in America operates under  a very circumscribed idea of what the 
theatre is and who the audience is= and is thefore profoundly 
uninteresting.

As for voluntary poverty, I have yet to meet the voluntarily poor. 
I'm not talking about  8/hr jobs- I'm talking about about apartments 
with no heat,  being homeless, not  knowing where  the next meal is 
coming from- unemployed, as opposed to working, poor.
  I have searched for the new Cesar Chavez, the new Dorothy Day or 
Francois Villon,  and I hven't found them.

  I'm  fairly uniquely qualified to talk about this- in 1989, as part 
of a much a much larger protest against the Guld War, I gave up my 
apartment and moved onto  the Federal building Plaza- I remained 
voluntarily homeless for about 3 months, dedicating myself to 
activist work. Yes, people took me in, but  I was really " depending 
on the kindness of strangers. " It was the most wonderful period of 
my life  ( that and the 6 months f ollowing) because I was actually 
free from the shackles of the system, I was free in all ways- 
spiritually, politically, financially.

  At the same time ,, although it was personally amazing, it was 
probably the least politically effective  period I ever had. n 
Because of my own decisions, I marginalized myself- I let myself be 
dismissed as " just another neo-hippie with no reponsibilities 
screaming about social change."

  Jean Genet , at the 1968 Democratic  Convention in Chicago, talked 
about an order of priorities. His point was that  protesters had to 
be from the middle class or intelligensia simply by the fact that 
they were protesting. If they were truly poor, they  would  be 
figuring out where the next meal comes from, not protesting about 
overthrowing the system.

Most peolpe I hear speak about voluntary poverty are not poor. To 
them  it is simply  a concept in solidarity.
  Ask a homeless person what thry think of the concept of voluntary 
poverty, and I'm  sure they'll look at you like you're nuts.

  There is an exception to all of this- a company called Double Edge 
Theatre, based  in Ashfield MA.  They do extraordinary physical 
theatre- -  and live very close to the earth  on a hundred acre farm, 
they built both their living and perfomance spaces themselves.  Not 
only do I love  their work  but I look up to them  as a model. Why? 
Because their practice is consciously  aligned with their theory.

  Looking at some of the top experimental theater today, I see two threads.
  Andre Gregory- independently wealthy
  Robert Wilson- independently wealthy
  Liz LeCompte- Wealthy
Richard Schechner- wealthy
  Robert LePage (Ex Machina)- supported by the state
  Eugenio Barba- supported by the state
Ariane Mnouchkine (Theater du  Soleil)- supported by the state
Peter Brook - supported by the state
  Moving Theatre ( Communist theatre troupe headed by Vanessa 
Redgrave)- funded by Ms, Redgrave
   Pina Bausch- funded by the state

  When I say I don't want to be poor- I mean theatre-poor. I want  to 
aim consciously toward spectacle, because I feel it's the only chance 
we have to get the next generation back into the theatre. We have to 
be more interesting than a Korn concert.  To do this takes money , 
resource and time. I'm not ashamed to ask for any of these things in 
the service of the work.

  I've been hearing  about prosperity  for days now" As the wave 
grows, the boat floats higher for ALL Americans...."
  My question: who forgot to tell the artists scrambling after $5000.00 grants??

--brad