Re: RAT, The dramaturgy of...

[Laura Winton <fluffysingler@prodigy.net>]

I'd like to reframe the "fuck the audience" idea.  I suspect that many of us
feel it, but more as "fuck the dominant culture."  Don't we all hate it when
things like Cats and Riverdance and Annie Get Your Gun are not only the only
offerings in town, but the only ones that get mentioned, sell tickets, etc. 
Isn't that what we're really reacting against here?

I got into an email discussion with someone from the MN Fringe Festival
(delete this if you've heard this one) and he was saying that they wanted to
"reach out" more to the "Cats crowd", to show them that alternative theatre
wasn't scary and that the inner city (such as it is in Minneapolis) isn't
scary and that alternative theatre wasn't just someone slapping raw meat on
their heads and screaming at you for two hours.  (Made me want to run
straight to the butcher store.)  While I appreciate the huge project that
the local Fringe is and how hard they work to promote our shows, this felt
like pandering of a sort to me--trying to package the frequently challenging
and unique work that dozens of local companies and individuals do into
something acceptable to the mainstream and it makes me want to yell FUCK
THEM with a big old porkchop dangling around my neck.

Obviously, anyone who chooses to come to one of our shows instead of
Showboat--we rush up and hug them and I fan them and feed them grapes
throughout the entire performance (occasionally slapping them with spare
ribs and yelling FUCK).

"Those poor kids.  So young.  So nauseous."
--Krusty the Klown Telethon for Motion Sickness


Laura Winton
fluffysingler@prodigy.net
http://pages.prodigy.net/fluffysingler