Re: RAT looking back, short telescope

[gaby <gaby@ratconference.com>]

Some quick thoughts, additions, questions...

As usual, just when you wonder whether rat is dead, it overwhelms you with 
its aliveness.  A thousand thanks to all guests and hosts who came and 
shared of themselves.

Another retrospective possible title:  theater and community.  It seems to 
me that generations, diversity, unions/guilds, alternative media, TCG and 
rat all have to do with what our purpose is within our 
communities.  Similar themes kept popping up:  I like Alfred's small, 
intent groups "surround the center" and Morgan's 'instead of of one big 
boulder thrown into the water, causing waves that peter our far from the 
center, you throw lots of little pebbles (philarat, BCT, bayarearat, etc.) 
whose ripples touch and mingle and together reach far' (i'm 
paraphrasing).  Also, maybe rat should convene and coordinate with other 
non-theater related smaller groups.

Specific to the unions discussion, there was some very important practical 
information that came out of it which is germane to theaters in all 
cities:  (The woman from AEA who attended was Carol Waaser, Eastern 
Regional Director.  The local Philly AEA liaison is Tom Helmer and in NYC I 
spoke to David Lotz--all three bent over backwards to make sure we have a 
rep at this rat conference. )  AEA realizes the American theater landscape 
is changing and has made many adjustments and special contracts over that 
last 10 years. It was discussed that in cities other than LA, New York and 
Chicago, actors often cut themselves off from work and opportunities to ply 
their craft once they join Equity; i.e., they're forced to leave town, 
leaving local theaters with a smaller pool of actors and undermining what's 
deemed "professional" in a community... The upshot:  talk to Equity; make 
your own special contract; many complaints never make it to AEA's ears.

I do want to throw out briefly some of my and others' thoughts on future 
conferences:
--We need both general conferences and themed ones.
--Have it all in same building.
--Don't have performances except those that are jointly created the days 
of.  The importance and strength of rat (and absolute key to its survival!) 
is the face-to-face meeting and talking.  This time had an almost complete 
division:  those who prepared and did performances and those who convened 
and held discussions/workshops/etc.  And both groups seemed too tired to 
attend each other's work.
--We need group sessions to hear others speak, but then we need down time 
after each group session to talk to the people who interest us.
--At opening meeting, in addition to introducing yourself, speak briefly 
about what you know about rat and why you came.  Then do it again at the 
wrap-up.

Some wrap-up ideas were:
--Maybe don't think of a new name for RAT but write it with all small 
letters (rat) and drop the "Conference" part of it.
--The key to rat's survival and potency in the world is face-to-face 
meetings.  I'm absolutely clear on this.
--shut the rat-list down except for 2 days a week.

Any thoughts?

G




At 03:53 PM 6/25/01 -0700, you wrote:
>All-in-all:
>
>Getting this down before I forget it all. Don't have notes on all the
>sessions I attended; some spots patchier than others.
>
>Deep thanks to Nick, Gaby and the open-hearted hosts in Philly. Every day
>got deeper; summer-camp feel at goodbye.
>
>Retrospective title: Energy - how to get it, how to spend it. Per
>organizational means: union, ritual, style (personal, genre), media. And
>overarching: the organization of rat. Repetition increases identity, or
>sense of it. What is that sense? What is rat meant to do, how does it
>achieve those goals, and how does it gather the will to move forward? Or
>does it want only energy without agenda?
>
>The form of the conference was true to its development -rat re-made locally.
>An opportunity to review fundamental questions. Held in the presence of
>TCG - a large, effective, evolving organization. Does our small, willfully
>unstable, at-the-fringe corona of artists aspire to growth? To concentration
>at the center of culture, with improved collective access to resources? Or
>is TCG doing a job we don't need to? We would compliment work in the field
>by accelerating outward from the core?
>
>Intro:
>Flamenco and food at a stretched Dixon-Place: Sra Shubin's theater/house.
>
>Diversity:
>Brad and crew. Whatever it is, there doesn't seem to be enough of it, and
>conversations about it don't seem to be the way to get any more of it
>together. For it to happen, individuals or small groups need a decided and
>free relationship with capital/resources - either detachment or
>independent-entrepreneurship. Rat in this case may help by being a
>touchstone for reflection and an exchange of scams.
>      "Diversity" as simple eclecticism is no deep solution, and in fact, may
>dilute grass roots practice when exercised by larger institutions (when a
>large outfit seasons its season with a little of this, little of that,
>sidestepping change in the elemental power structure - they may promote the
>sense that they have discovered "the" poetic-theater artist, African
>American artist, etc. shutting out the rest of the field). Changes must open
>avenues of access (cede a measure of programming authority, for example) to
>the movement, as it exists on the ground. Meanwhile, artists/small groups
>should trust self-production.
>      Diversity isn't always necessary. That a classic flamenco style
>continue to be practiced feels important; hopefully somebody out there is
>maintaining a sense of how the hammer dulcimer was played back-when.
>      Kinds of diversity: form, image, community. To effect change: money is
>volatile, communities are organic and mortal (the case of rat, and how its
>membership shifts). to effect the deepest changes, change the space.
>Literally move your locality to another locality (tour meaningfully - with
>necessity in tact); change theater architecture, theater addresses. If
>people aren't coming through your door - move your door. Real estate.
>      Not forgetting the dental emergency case in point - Sometimes you have
>to go for the cash; sometimes you have to pay the bills. Non-violence
>theory, as I understand a version of it, goes this way to. Use up every
>imaginative possibility (the number of possibilities always being
>underestimated) to defuse the situation. then knock the sucker out if the
>knife's arc towards the throat of your loved one is relentless. Less
>dramatically - pay the people when the art's right and the money-language is
>all that's holding you up.
>
>Generations:
>Sweet Fordham crew. Fears and interests of a graduating class. Synthesis:
>that the gaps in the theater community are more a matter of culture than of
>age (narrative versus non-narrative; working styles.). One generational
>issue: the increased proliferation of images over time. Art can be our
>meeting ground, since performance is about pure action (what you do versus
>what seems to be), and at the center of action is silence and hope.
>
>Unions, Guilds, and Community:
>Jefferey Sweet rep'd the Dramatist's Guild; Gaby has the name of the Equity
>Rep. Equity and DG are interested in protecting the rights of labor. No
>disagreement there. If we mix member artists with non-members, inequities
>arise. You may join a union and find that there isn't enough union work to
>sustain your career; even work under union guidelines can fail to provide a
>living wage. [Conversation focused on Equity; DG is just that - a guild - an
>alliance of independent contractors.] Members need more autonomy in moving
>in and out of the union.
>      As artists, we want to work at will. We believe we want to work in good
>faith, according to fair principles. We want to protect labor, but on more
>fluid terms (e.g. distributing resources equally, when resources are scarce,
>which may mean paying everyone $25 for a six week process; which may mean
>paying people in tube socks for a two-year process) because the nature of
>the processes and resources is so variable.
>      A concrete task arose: locally, in Philly, theaters and the artists
>they want to work with need to clarify their grievances, elect spokespeople,
>and meet with Equity. This model should be duplicated on a local level
>nationally, and perhaps rat could be a catalyst for these meetings. Then
>local groups could compare notes across the country, working the discussion
>further and further up the Equity chain. If Equity can't be reformed, not
>out of malice - but because the reforms would be about allowing labor to
>voluntarily distance itself from safety - a practice counter to Equity's
>mission - then maybe rat could propose the formation of an alternative union
>or guild, and we'd lobby to have alternative contracts recognized.
>
>Ritual:
>Alfred Vitale. History and definitions. A personal history of a long-term
>exploration, in a beautifully apt space (church turned museum), made
>accessible through level, coherent discussion; group exercises with a game
>crowd - ritual actions celebrating the cardinal directions.
>
>Punk:
>Leah Ryan. Learning to collaborate with our exhaustion, our chaos, rather
>than solving it. A sense of control in dynamic dialogue with a sense of the
>out-of-control.
>      Means of disrupting frozen senses of order: Disorder the senses;
>overlap artistic circles (hang out/collaborate across disciplines); travel;
>let the pressures and opportunities of the next project(s) influence the
>current project.
>      Fears: Starting. Continuing. Finishing. Self-criticism shuts us down.
>      Address fears by: personalizing your relationship with your audience
>(create for friends, or accept that you have chosen and require strangers in
>your process); think about the short form; seek out the company and support
>of other artists; know that the self that censors you is not your monolithic
>and definitive self - you are several; statistically, two out of every three
>things you make is going to suck, so lighten up; kick innovation junk - not
>everything you create has to be the first and last of its kind; when you
>start writing/making, you are not necessarily starting at the beginning
>(solve fear of starting and finishing by recognizing that you are always in
>the middle).
>      Writing exercises to music.
>
>Alternative Media:
>Eric Galatas, Free Speech TV. Do we want to use the media to appropriate the
>center? To concentrate wealth and celebrity? Do we want to scam the media,
>and raid our way to mass attention? Sure, sometimes. Another use of media -
>take it out of the center and use it to activate and connect the fringe.
>Make cheap DV movies not to audition for Sundance, but because you need a DV
>movie in your community. Lean on and trust the alternative media
>(micro-stations, pirate stations) the way we currently, habitually lean on
>the mainstream media.
>
>Spanish Mysticism:
>1) Know yourself (what are you asking, whom are you asking, what do you
>expect the one asked to do, and what do you expect to happen then?)
>2) Know yourself as a writer (imitation, adaptation)
>3) Know writing (mentorship, mastery of forms)
>4) Intuit writing (collaborations, loss of ownership)
>5) Cease "writing"
>6) Be
>7) Be with
>
>Muse, Angel, Duende. Purgative, Illuminative, Unitive. We got halfway.
>
>Wrap Up:
>a) Do we need to be? Do we need to meet? There are people we would miss if
>we didn't get together. there are conversations we are having here, on
>subjects and in a manner that require some anarchy - some explosion of
>concentration or radical simplicity of concentration - conversations that
>need to happen outside the context of structured democracy and a faith in
>development/improvement (anarchy is hopeful, but not necessarily
>developmental). Rat needn't be effective, but may be effective beyond this
>conversation.
>b) Rat is a zine. Rat advertises ideas that speak to garage theaters, to
>immediatist theaters (Bey). Advertises these ideas to its community, and to
>other communities. To improve as a zine - operate more
>sporadically/selectively? Produce an artifact (literal, paper zine)? Get out
>a book that compiles some of the ideas we keep returning to?
>c) To be effective beyond advertising/play-of-ideas: engage in specific and
>selective (that word again) conversations locally (as per Equity plan).
>Issues of selectivity and representations are clearly still forming.
>d) The issue at the heart of rat is still connecting - in the flesh and in
>mutual need. Fostering the exchange of workers with their work; ways of
>working demonstrated through actual practice.
>
>That's it for now. Would be good to hear reports from the other events, or
>views that correct and add to mine. There are all the issues of the problems
>and successes of the logistics of this conference, but I fell like those
>were pretty well talked out on-site. Where/whenever the next conference is,
>we can revisit technique then. I'm going to try and be quiet for a while;
>probably go off list after next week. The "silence and hope" idea is from
>Teresa, and I want to live with that right now.
>
>
>- ehn
>
>
>
>
>
>
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