RAT Re: obscurity

[Ezra Buzzington <jonoh1@juno.com>]

Dear Chris,
  This really is put quite beautifully. I appreciate your insight and
hope that your future  work in the theatre (with which I am somewhat
familiar) continues to serve your clearly altruistic ends. However, to me
the theatre is not  and must never be a sandbox in which merely those
whose social behaviour most befits the perameters are welcome to play.
What of the fool whose inner child pops out at the slightest tipple of
wine and insults those around him quite by chance? What of the surly
craftsman? What of the shy voiced poet? If we place social interaction
over text and technique then what will that eventually do to the art
form? Must we all "relate" to be produced?  What you purport frightens me
a bit. Taken to its' logical conclusion, only those who have the skill,
interest, inherent charm, or best approach to sycophantry will succeed in
the theatre. Oh, sure, a few "nice" ones will slip in as well. But,
frankly, I'd rather produce, director and/or act in shows that have a
deep rooted sense of self and never even meet the author than put on a
show of perhaps lesser artistic potential simply because I want to build
a relationship with someone. 
  Best to you and yours,
  Jonathan Harris


On Sat, 20 Feb 99 18:04:24 -0800 Chris Jeffries <cjeffries@seanet.com>
writes:
>Karen,
>
>Enjoyed your post.  Please don't apologize for ranting; we all do it, 
>it 
>was your turn, we understand.
>
>Theatre is a people medium.  Whatever other elements may be in the 
>mix, 
>call them "theory" or "language" or "politics" or what you will, those 
>
>things do not put on a show.  People put on a show.  And people come 
>to 
>see people put on a show.  That is why Jason and most others prefer to 
>
>work with people they know; because people is what they work with, 
>over 
>and above "scripts" and "materials," and the better you know someone, 
>the 
>more of a person they are to you and the richer your theatre 
>experience 
>will likely be.  People who select plays read a lot of scripts; all of 
>
>them find it more fun to feel like they are producing people, or even 
>better, relationships, and not simply pieces of writing.  This has 
>nothing to do with "connections" in the corporate-jargon sense.  It 
>has 
>everything to do with "connections" the real word referring to real 
>things that happen to real people when they work together and change 
>each 
>other doing theatre together, whether or not they are in the same room 
>or 
>city at the time.
>
>Why _should_ a theatre undertake to produce a script that arrives in 
>the 
>mail?  Isn't there something wrong with that model?  Speaking for 
>Annex, 
>we've done about two hundred shows in a dozen or so years, nearly all 
>of 
>them unpublished, and I can't think of a single one that simply showed 
>up 
>in the mail.  Which is not to say we know every writer.  Sometimes the 
>
>company does "What?" by "Who?" because the person proposing it has a 
>connection to the piece, and the others choose to trust that 
>connection.  
>But Annex considers itself most successful when the bulk of the work 
>it 
>is doing comes from "in house" -- from people who help take out the 
>trash 
>and sign up to work box office.  This is not to be snotty and 
>exclusive 
>and shut anybody out.  It is because the biggest rewards come when 
>everyone involved feels as invested as possible in the work -- and, in 
>a 
>breathlessly busy organization that doesn't pay people, those rewards 
>may 
>not be dispensed with lightly.  Now, no one guarantees production or 
>casting to anyone who empties the trash, and plenty of people do 
>theatre 
>at Annex who don't do those other things and disappear for months at a 
>
>time, and that's fine, but who feels more connected?  The ones with 
>the 
>trash bags.  And theatre is connection.  For my money that's a far 
>stronger "why they do what they do" than any "intellectual framework," 
>
>however appetizing, will ever be.
>
>RAT was dreamed up (or hacked up) precisely to create connection where 
>it 
>didn't exist, to remove some of the horrible impersonality of American 
>
>theatre, an impersonality that includes the tradition of cold mailings 
>of 
>plays.  RAT conferences happen, for one, because getting one's work 
>out 
>is often better accomplished by sharing a pizza than by "getting one's 
>
>work out."  I personally have found it ten times more valuable to have 
>
>sat down with some of these RATs and talked with them than if I'd 
>received a list of them and mailed them all a script.  I may mail them 
>a 
>script or I may not, but frankly I'd rather hang out and just be 
>people 
>together, not wanting anything from them but _them_.  The way out of 
>"obscurity" is to offer, not your scripts, but yourself.  Ask any RAT. 
> 
>It works.
>
>When a person whose job it is to choose plays decides to reject a 
>particular script, she or he is thinking about a lot more than just 
>that 
>script.  They are looking at it in the context of other projects 
>already 
>chosen or under consideration.  They are using all of their knowledge 
>of 
>their theatre and its history, its audience, its budget, its 
>personnel, 
>its resources, all of the particular strengths and weaknesses of their 
>
>organization and its people.  Above all its people, which includes its 
>
>audience.  Chances are they know better than the playwright which 
>projects are best for their people.  It may be that they are trying to 
>
>please the "wrong" kind of people for you, in which case you're better 
>
>off without them.  Or it may be that they've tried projects like yours 
>in 
>the past and had bad experiences for one reason or another.  They 
>didn't 
>do it justice and felt bad about it, or nobody liked it, or it got 
>them 
>into debt, or the theatre down the street could have done it much 
>better 
>and everybody knew it.  Every theatre, every group of people, is 
>unique 
>and special, and so the best way to get produced is to be familiar 
>with 
>what's unique and special about a particular theatre and offer them 
>something that either fits them like a glove or stretches them in a 
>positive way.  This, again, is why it helps to know people.  It sounds 
>
>very hard and very slow.  IT IS.  But that is the difference between 
>building relationships that matter and sitting around giving strangers 
>
>the power to make you feel more or less "obscure."
>
>And if all else fails, say "fuck it" and do it yourself.  That is why 
>the 
>Compound and On The Boards were formed, that is why Y York is 
>self-producing this spring, that is why Bret Fetzer self-produces if 
>no 
>one else is excited about what he wants to do.  We've all been there 
>and 
>yes, we've all experienced doing a great show that nobody cares about. 
> 
>So what.  If you have to do it, you have to do it.  Even a worst-case 
>scenario is an opportunity for everyone involved to exercise 
>tremendous 
>patience and generosity, qualities this country desperately needs, 
>more 
>than it needs theatre.
>
>Chris
>
>>Subject:     RAT Re: obscurity
>>Sent:        2/19/19 2:13 AM
>>Received:    2/20/99 3:07 PM
>>From:        Karen Cronacher, kcron@ix.netcom.com
>>Reply-To:    rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com
>>To:          rat-list@whirl-i-gig.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
>

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]