RAT Re: one last ting about the bull

[Btmsdream@aol.com]

this conference is free. NO ,money is spent on it other than some attempt at 
hospitality. Our resource remains good will and collaboration. The RAT 
conference has always adopted the personality of the city that has hosted . 
This one is in LA. NOt Iowa. We have ALOT. To classify Caridad Svich as 
mainstream because she has had a gig at the Taper for a year that paid her 
while she could focus on her work is  unbelievable to me. Many artists would 
accept that proposition. In fact, isn't that one of our goals? Don't we want 
to be supported while creating our work. We've talked about all this before. 
RAT is nothing if not to create the opportunity to share our work so we can 
make a living at it. Geez, guys. I am trying to be respectful to your 
response but I keep asking myself, how old is Paul and will he be doing 
theatre in ten years? This conference is being created by people who care, by 
people who are giving their time and passion for no money. It is so easy to 
sit there downtown where I could ask 250 theatre people in LA if they have 
ever heard of your Wolfskill theatre and the overwhelming majority , if not 
all, would say no. After 44 productions.I have heard of your theatre because 
of BCT which is RAT inspired. Isn't there anything that we are bringing into 
your own backyard that could help you?
yes, I was concerned about "selling out". no one cares more about RAT than I 
do Paul. No one. I've been to all the conferences, including the founding 
one. I am( we are)just trying to make a weekend that can inspire the LA 
theatre community and our visiting co art workers. ASK is doing nothing with 
this conference other than supporting our dream for it. Caridad is a 
playwright not the managing director of the center theatre group. she is 
passionate, talented and I thought her work should be known by theatre's 
across the country who may visit,G-d forbid, one may even want to produce a 
play of hers. That is RAT to me. There will be hundreds of hours of 
collaboration and sharing among theatre artists, This aint no TCG. ben 
Cameron and Nick have had an uneasy dialogue all year about issues. ben 
contacted US about coming. RAT is inclusive. We said fine, come . Personally, 
I am looking forward to having him discover us better. he's been curious 
about RAT since he took over TCG last year. I am not trying to sell out. 
About ASK one more time. RATs have been helped by ASK. Jason in Austin 
directed in the retreat(got paid even to work with Ruth Margraff,!!) My 
theatre CO. has co produced with 3 theatres outside LA and was funded for it 
by ASK!! That's good. House of Dames (Seattle) is working in LA this weekend 
at Common Ground. They were introduced by us to ASK. Geez. I want to 
introduce every visiting theatre to ASK folk while they are here. That is LA. 
Whether you like it or not, they are a major part of LA theatre and this is 
our turn to host. We are putting together an LA RAT conference. This is LA 
not Mpls.(where the playwrights center would probably participate, what a 
sell out that would be, imagine playwrights who get funded participating in a 
theatre conference!) or NY(The NY Times might invade our secret domain, oh 
wait they did) 
mitchell (Oh yeah I'm a big sellout) Gossett
and that's it for my response to Paul, We're looking ahead and Paul I hope 
you can attend. Your comments are not misplaced. you have the right to say 
anything you fuppin please. I don't believe you are right though. RAT 
LIVES!!!!