RAT Re: obscurity

["Karen Cronacher" <kcron@ix.netcom.com>]

hi brad,

I love your list and didn't take my omission personally.  I just have a
basic rat question:  how do we get far-out language plays, that are black
comedy and avante-garde, etc., produced???

i've discussed this topic with Mac Wellman and heard Jeff Jones speak on it.
 Basically they were very sad and embittered.  They both told me they'd sent
out their plays to every theatre in the country, spent a lot of money, and
nothing happened. (this was 10 years ago, before they were known).

My friend Y York warned me before i sent my play out that no one would do
it.  And jason neulander warned me that even he rarely produces a play by
someone he doesn't know.

so i sent my play out anyway, spending $2,000 i don't have, after spending
another $2,000 to produce my own solo show in the Seattle Fringe, which
received reviews that said i could win the Pulitzer (i'm not kidding--i was
shocked) but still no one came and i lost all the money.

basically, no one will produce my play, tho every rejection comments on my
brilliance, my wildly imaginative play (magic theate, playwrights horizons),
how much they love it, etc.  this just makes me crazy--everyone knows it's
good, it's been done successfully, it got great reviews, it's won awards,
but no one will do it.  I have this  faith--i believe if you have talent,
then people will recognize it, but i'm totally wrong and it's really about
connections. 

so, i'm in a quandry, an existential crisis, etc.  i'm thinking of coming to
the conference.

about grad school:  my years at Brown were the happiest ever.  I just lived
the passion of writing and working with people, and didn't have to think
about the real world.  My years at the U.W. were horrid--no one was alive
with ideas.  But i got a ph.d. there a while ago with Sue Ellen Case, who
was very abusive.

i just wanted to let you know where i'm coming from.  I will send you the
play, and see what you think, thank you for agreeing to read it.

seattle has a lot of theatre going on but none of it is idea-based or
language oriented.  The compound does some interesting non-linear work and
on the boards is great (i've performed there) and Brett fetzer does
Mabou-Mines type stuff, but i've studied lots of theory, and no one comes
from that place.Also, even the interesting stuff is so apolitical.  People
do not seem to know why they do what they do--they don't have a sense of
theatre history or an intellectual framework.

i do not usually rant, i swear.  What is your opinion of all this?  We can
open up this discussion on the list, too, if you want.

--Karen
----------
>From: brad rothbart <scrdchao@nni.com>
>To: rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com
>Subject: Re: RAT Altamont Now
>Date: Sat, Feb 20, 1999, 8:48 AM
>

>>brad,
>>my play would be on that list if you'd read it.
>>--Karen in Seattle, tired of being obscure!!!!!
>
>Karen,
>
>Send it to me. I'll read it.  Gladly.   411 Norfolk Road Flourtown PA
>19031-2109.
>Seattle ios a grate place to become unobscure ( at least within Seattle),
>but realize that the whole idea of Seattle is , in itself, fairly obscure
>to the rest odf the counrtry. People have overrun it in the last few years
>just for that reason- it represents the other, the unnkown territiory, a
>different ethos. It used to be the last stop of the pioneers on their  way
>to GoldRush, literally  the last frontier.
>
>Please understannd that that list , aklthough I wrote it quickly, comes
>from years of reading work/. I first discovered Mac Wellman and Eric
>Overmyer in one of the Wordplay series (i think it was IV), (and Jeff Jones
>and Len Jenkin) at the UW theatre library.   I found a collection of Mac's
>plays, called The Bad Infinty, and found that I was entranced by his
>writing. ...
>
> 3 years later in 1994, I found  Native Speech   by Erik Overmyeratt Drama
>Bookshop. I remembered the name and was intrigued.  I bought it , read it ,
>and was repulsed by it. I found it repugnant, and yet I  was drawn to it I
>hated myself for continuing to read it. I n the end I realized that what
>made it so  horrifying ,also made it  necessary.  To this day, I can't
>forget it.
>
>  I met Ruth Margraff at  a July 4th party a few years ago, and was really
>impressed by this quiet, kind , sweet person. That meeting did nothing to
>prepare me for her actual work, however. I was lucky enough to attend an
>open  rehearsal of one of her pieces at  the New York Rat Conference.   I
>was so knocked out that  when a workshop reading of a scene  from another
>of Ruth's plays was led by Jason Neulander  (of Salvage Vanguard) at the
>New York Conference, I volunteered to participate and found myself
>completely terrified, afraid that I would not do this gorgeous script
>justice.
>
> Bucci I also met at the New York conference He was a fun guy  who talked
>about bringing the rock'n'roll ethos  back into theatre, which is also an
>interest of mine.  I'd heard great things about his work from everyone, and
>based on my encounters with him, I knew that I wa.nted to  do one of his
>pieces if he'd let me.
>
>Shelley Berc's  play I found in Plays for the End of the 20th Century, (
>which I had only bought because there was a Reza Abdoh and an Erik Ehn play
>in the same book-- how bad could it be : ) )  I rrad Shelley's play  once,
>was amazed  at the depth , vulnerability, r and  level of risk in it,
>decided it was the best play I had ever read, read it 5 more times in
>succession, and began recommending it to all my friends.   Through the
>magic of email, Shelley and I began to correspond and became friends.
>
> BTW,  for all NYC RATs,Sshelley is teaching a workshop, called the
>Creativity Workshop, in Mamhattan   on 6 and 7 march. the webpage is
>http://www.creativityworkshop.com and the phone info # is  212.249.1602
>Yes, that was a  shameless plug once removed.
>
>The point of all of this, Karen , is to say that in some ways I am in a
>very privileged position. I am a freelance director, not an artistic
>director. I don't have to put a season together,and hope it  has an
>audience out there. I am free to do what I want. What I want to do right
>now is twofold.  One, to direct the plays that have been obsessing me for
>years.  Two, to promote  and produce the works of my fellow RATs, my fellow
>travelers, those messengers of the future who deserve to be heard and are
>not, at least in Philadelphia.  I don't know you, or your work,. and have a
>list of plays already, therefore I felt no compulsion to  put you on any
>list. It' s really not about you, don't take it that way.
>
>One of the best things about these RAT Conferences is that they are
>alchemical events-- they turn electrons into flesh. It was incredible for
>me when I actually got to  put faces to list names...  So write, express,
>voice  your unique opionion.  Buit also come to LA,  listen, watch,
>debate, hang, drink RAT SASS,  share a  bagel with someone you don't know.
>Just  be a RAT with your RAT brethren.
>
>I hope to be reading your work soon.
>
>Namaste,
>
>
>brad
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