Re: RAT Marx in Soho (in LA)

[Cat Hebert <virtualdrama@juno.com>]

Let's face it folks: 
TV and film are a lot better at reaching a wider audience, and at dealing
with economic and social issues -- even if programs don't cover all the
bases. 

In my experience, except for true grass roots agit-prop theaters (like
the farm-workers theater),  contemporary US political theater is usually
produced by upper-middle-class intellectuals [background or foreground] 
who want to put together pieces to promote their own belief system.

It seems to me that theater as a whole in the US has a few primary
functions:
-- a way of spending time pleasantly while digesting dinner (postprandial
literacy)
-- a way of preparing children for roles as managers in the corporate
world
-- an inexpensive training ground for actors, writers, and directors who
will primarily work in TV
-- a living museum for the history of the theater, which is essentially a
history of the upper middle class and their betters
-- a place to more-or-less gainfully employ children of the educated
upper middle class who are unsuited for careers in real businesses and
who will write, direct, produce, and criticize entertainments aimed at
portraying the lives and travails of the upper-middle-class (or of people
who greatly interest the upper middle class -- such as the upper class,
the amusing working class, freaks, intellectuals, and other people with
whom one wouldn't want to extended periods of time) [Have you ever
wondered why so many artistic directors of almost-profitable theaters are
so aggressive and such spin-meisters? It's those business genes kicking
in.:)]

The only reason there is any public funding for theater has to do with
corporate support of the above items.

Cheers,
Cat Hebert
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