Re: RAT ticket expiration and dramaturgs

[Michael Wright <myquagga@yahoo.com>]

Michael Farkash wrote:

Just who bestowed citizenship status on dramaturgs?
> What ARE they in terms of 
> background?   Academics? Playwrights with spare
> time? Directors who are not 
> directing?  
> 
> And for that matter, when did landlords become
> artistic directors?  I'm 
> speaking of producers in small LA theatres with whom
> I've worked, who charge 
> playwrights for the space, and then also muck around
> with the artistic vision 
> of the piece, as a condition of producing the piece.
> I've HAD this 
> experience, being assailed with financial demands,
> and with artistic demands 
> that I've had to resist -- because
> producer/landlords fancy themselves 
> dramaturgs.
> 
> Things are better for me, now that I'm being
> produced by companies who prize 
> the playwrights' vision, and make suggestions, not
> artistic conditions. But 
> when I was starting out, in my salad days -- oh it
> was a nightmare out there, 
>  a virtual night terror of "soi disant "dramaturgs."

yes, but your personal experiences don't get to define
an entire field for everybody else.  there are
dramaturgs who work for no pay in new play development
programs such as new york stage and film, shenandoah,
etc.  your resentment of your own treatment has
colored your perspective, no doubt, but you're hardly
the only playwright who's been screwed by the
producers or whomever.  it's a lousy business
sometimes, but that doesn't obviate the value of
dramaturgs.  

michael

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products.
http://shopping.yahoo.com/