Re: RAT Theater as Art Form/Party/Parade vs. Theater as Small Business

["Jack Bentz" <jbentzsj@hotmail.com>]

Walter Kerr, as much as I have loved reading him, was interested in saying
and writing things that would entertain and be remembered.  But to believe
his description of the theater world is perilous.  RATs have been good at
suggesting other fuller richer ways of practicing the arts.  Of course these
attempts are also described in turn by our own generation who force the
business paradigm on an artisitic organisim.  And more insidiously we live
and breath in an almost inescapable capitalism permeating our every thought
artistic or otherwise.  Sometimes our most vivid experiences of creating
theater are times we have escaped that atmosphere and were able to breath
from our own tanks of pure air.

Jack
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cat Hebert" <virtualdrama@juno.com>
To: <rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com>
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 6:59 AM
Subject: Re: RAT Theater as Art Form/Party/Parade vs. Theater as Small
Business


> In college we had a guest instructor for a week -- by the name of Walter
> Kerr. The two things I actually remember about that visit was that he
> said "beware of playwrights with three names" and "the performing arts is
> a nastier business than the garment trade" -- and he went into quite a
> bit of detail on the second one.
>
> Cheers,
> Cat
>
>
> > "Theater provides a service which is similar in many ways to a
> > massage.
> > The customer goes into a semi-darkened room; has an experience which
> > may
> > or may not feel good; pays and leaves with no visible sign (except
> > a
> > receipt/program)."
> >
> >
> > "In many theaters this relationship is strikingly similar to the
> > plantation owner / migrant worker relationship. The workers are
> > desperate
> > to get jobs and owners, who control a limited number of jobs, seek
> > to
> > hire workers as inexpensively as possible."
> >
> > aren't these creepy crawly images, cat. your massage sounds
> > something like a
> > cheap fuck.
> >
> > love,
> > dennis
> >
> >
> >
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