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RE: RAT "The Director and the Community"
I say bring 'em on. It is so important to acknowledge the importance of
where or in what community a play is performed. A piece done for an
audience in Seattle is going to be seen and heard differently than by an
audience in New York City than by an audience in Tallahassee, FL than by an
audience in Austin, TX, etc., etc., for the mere fact that different shit
happened in their particular world that day. And the associations they will
make are much more immediate than the otherwise undeniable fact that 95% of
people who still go see theatre are all college educated and upper middle
class.
Theatre is immediate to the community in which an audience resides (not to
mention the artists). That's the whole point of what I do, that immediacy.
That kind of intimacy. Anything that tries to do otherwise smacks of Disney
to me, trying to appeal to the national masses, and that's when theatre
really loses its beauty in my eyes. Usually because the interests are
commercial and financial at heart in such cases.
I say let those directors visit both RAT and TCG, and see who joins which
party.
Cara Rosson
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com [mailto:owner-rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com]
On Behalf Of Cat Hebert
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2001 8:37 PM
To: rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com
Subject: RE: RAT "The Director and the Community"
Hmmm. A bus of directors. Perhaps a new designation, like flock, or gaggle.
Would probably want something more control oriented, like "a tank" of
directors -- or convoy.
Anyway, it seems to me that there are two related problems here. On the one
hand, directors coming from other cities *will* know the community if they
are directing for mainstream theaters -- the theater community in most
places is college educated and upper middle class. How those audiences will
relate to theater will vary some depending on local exposure, but....
On the other hand, sometimes directors don't know their *own* communities
(and may not care). For example, bringing particularly controversial
pieces/productions into towns where there is no history/preparation for that
sort of event, and no established "leading-edge" community -- like a
university with a strong arts program. Or... making the mistake that a
particular community is too "conservative" for particular kinds of theater,
when, in fact, there may be a sizable audience -- if developed.
Won't the bus of Lincoln Center directors feel more at home at the TCG
conference? Since the Philadelphia theater scene is essentially dark for
the summer by June 21 -- except for certain productions entirely aimed at
the TCG conference, I"m wondering what the Fill-A-RAT conference can
offer -- except for groups from other cities talking to each other.
Cheers,
Cat Hebert
-------------------
Hi all,
Anne Cattaneo is planning to bring a bus full of directors to the
Philadelphia RAT Conference from the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab.
http://www.lct.org/dirlab.html
She was asking if rat could accommodate a roundtable on something like "The
Director and the Community." Often directors are "jobbed into" a city to
direct a play. Can a director in such circumstances really understand the
community in which the work is being presented? Or is such discovery even
warranted? Perhaps it's the director's "outside eye" on the community that
has value. Etc.
Ralph Lewis of NYC's Peculiar Works and Michael LeLand of Philadelphia's
Theatre Double are trying to gather some ideas and get a sense of any
directors or others who would like to participate in this.
Email them off-list if you want <theatredouble@aol.com> <Pwprl@aol.com> or
share some ideas here.
--nick
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