Re: RAT One worm turning(5)

[nick <nick@nickspix.com>]

Yes, Ben, let's get together. I think the problem last year when we tried
to meet was that I was headed for Texas or Florida for a stay. I'm in New
York now, so we can meet at your office when it's convenient, or at our
house in downtown Brooklyn.  Also, if you're in town this weekend, Gabriele
and I are planning a BarBQ… Saturday, I think.

I was speaking specifically about journalism with "are you a participating
member of the community you exploit?" but it also does apply more generally
as you have used it.  Yes, each of us exploits/serves our community.  

Most RAT artists I know are not only in varying degrees their own funder,
but also their own publicist, their own tech, their own building super,
etc.  It's interesting to note that when <nunns@tcg.org> was
"participating" in the rat-list and RAT, he referred to his work as editor
for American Theatre as his "day job."  Many rat artists have similar day
jobs working as administrators, funders, techies, etc in the larger TCG
theaters and other moneyed art organizations.

More specifically, my real question might be phrased like this: how did
Steve Nunns' Battle of the Fringes article *serve* the theater community.
Its best compliment would be that it tries to turn some gossip into news
and/or publicity for the fests.  Both Clancy and Beall are probably too
thick skinned to be affected much by the negative portraits in it, but that
doesn't discount the fact that we now have one more fabricated story in
support of the notion that the NYC fringe theater community is a haven for
petty backbiters.  And so it may well be for some, but it's not the NYC
fringe theater in which my friends and I have participated and matured our
theater in for the last fifteen years. 

Ask yourself what would happen if American Theatre started spinning
negatively its own TCG member theaters, instead of going to the fringes for
its victims.  For one thing, Steve Nunns would have to find a new day job.