Re: RAT Marx in Soho (in LA)

[Cat Hebert <virtualdrama@juno.com>]

D.D. Delaney,

Nice analysis of the personal choice situation in theater. What I was trying to point out in my own note was that once you go the business route you have to have extremely good business/marketing skills/ and luck to pull off promoting your art as business. Some people are good at compartmentalizing on a project by project basis, and use cash generating projects to fuel other ventures, but the amount of time/effort required to put together projects makes that difficult -- especially during child-rearing years.

Then, of course, we have two related subjects: 1) people whose art includes commercially lucrative projects and who are taken advantage of because they have, for some reason, learned to disdain business skills; and 2) people whose skills primarily lie in business and are able to use spin/hype to generate short term profits from projects that are weak artistically. [In a related business, the XFL model seems to me to fit quite a few theater/film projects:)].

Cat's people-business rule #5: the value of an industry from a community point of view can be determined by measuring how many year round *living wage* jobs are supported by that industry and the percentage of gross industry profits shared by non-managerial employees in the form of wages and benefits.

By that standard, theater is a very small industry indeed.

Cheers,
Cat Hebert





---------------------------------------
To [un]subscribe to the rat-list, send an email to "majordomo@ratconference.com"
with [un]subscribe rat-list" in the body of the message.
For information on other functions send a message containing the word
"help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.
---------------------------------------
You may also [un]subscribe on the web at http://www.ratconference.com/cgi-bin/web_domo.pl?list=rat-list