RAT -- Day Four, 18 Aug

[leewochner@movingarts.org (Lee Wochner)]

>>Subject: RAT -- Day Four, 18 Aug
>>
>>In a world filled with irony, the roundtable discussion called "Alternative
>>Doesn't Have to Mean Disorganized" was especially successful -- that, because
>>its moderator, Sarah Hughes of the Undermain (Dallas), never materialized. It
>>was refreshing to know that even in this increasingly programmed and
>>preordained society, one can still get a curveball like this. Since there had
>>been rumors the previous night (well, that morning at 2 a.m.) that Sarah
>>wasn't at the conference (no one had seen her, but then, no one I talked to
>>knew what she looked like), I had volunteered then to be the substitute
>>moderator.
>>
>>I started off by asking participants to briefly relate how their organization
>>came to be, so that we could then examine whether any problems now were the
>>result of an initial structure that needed to change. Bob Fisher of Cloven
>>Patriarchs (formerly Tallahassee, FL, but now in NYC) said that he and Sean
>>McGrath started their company as a reaction to what could and couldn't be
>>done in the theatrical world of their college town. (And, as such, they were,
>>they believe, the first in Florida to present new "strange" playwrights like
>>Mac Wellman.) Ed Hawkins said that Annex was formed by a bunch of high-school
>>friends who swore they'd return to Seattle "when they were ready" and form a
>>theatre after college -- a vow they kept. (If only politicians were made of
>>such stuff.) Nick Fracaro gave a long history of Thieves Theatre in all its
>>permutations, and while I'm not sure I got a history of New Georges from
>>Susan Bernfield, I did come away with a basic understanding of her theatre.
>>Andrew Mellen said that he believed that if you formed your theatre as an
>>angry reaction against something else, at some point you'd need to reinvent
>>it along more positive lines because anger won't sustain you. (I.e., that
>>initial angry impulse eventually fades and with it, it will take the seed of
>>your genesis.) As someone who went through the process in 1995 of re moving
>>his theatre away from the Initial Angry Impulse and toward something
>>brighter, I completely understand. Eventually you grow to realize that no one
>>cares that you got pissed on and so started a theatre... least of all you. We
>>also talked about being organized to the point of helpfulness but not beyond,
>>where the organization becomes the structure that seals you in artistically.
>>I said that what I strive for is the equivalent of cellular structure:  a
>>semi-permeable membrane that keeps most of its contents inside (our company
>>of actors, our mission, our understanding of what we do) while letting some
>>new things pass in occasionally (guest artists, different kind of work) and
>>others go. This regulated influx of new and outflux of old is healthy. It
>>keeps us fresh and alert, and allows us to let out elements that over time
>>might poison us (a bad structure that's too limiting, people who aren't
>>playing well with us any more, and so forth). I think this system somewhat
>>applies between Rat theatres, too. From my outsider's perspective, I think
>>that what Annex needs is a paid artistic director to enforce who takes out
>>the trash. Meanwhile, I'd like for my theatre to be more like Annex in some
>>respects, and that envy arises indirectly from Annex's freewheeling
>>organization. I'll take some of them; maybe they'd like some of us; neither
>>of us will change so much as to lose our identity. It's the semi-permeable
>>membrane.
>>
>>The next roundtable is "Arts Management, Grant Writing & Schmoozing," led by
>>Andrew, a person I've grown to greatly admire these past four days. In the
>>often chaotic world of alternative theatre, he's very focused. This is
>>entirely appropriate; it turns out that he organizes (wealthy) people's lives
>>for a living. Nice work if you've got the mind. I think I would be better at
>>screwing up organized people's lives, making them hang out and drink and
>>smoke cigars with me all night, blow off work, and start bad relationships.
>>Well, we all have our talents. I took copious notes during this seminar, all
>>aimed toward screwing money out of The Man. (My framing of the issue, not
>>Andrew's.) Andrew has evidently done a lot of development, one of his success
>>stories being DCAC (D.C. Arts Center) which, when he got there, was
>>programming on gallery event occasionally but which, when he left, was a
>>beehive of artistic activity. His focus on getting arts dollars is exactly my
>>own:  Bear in mind that you have something to offer that they want, too; if
>>you go begging, you appear as a beggar. I arrived at this conclusion some
>>time ago strictly as a result of my personality -- too proud to beg, but
>>secure enough to ask as though it's owed to me. I also got extremely
>>formalized and helpful dicta for "how it's done":  the unspoken professional
>>code to follow. For instance, taking 10% off the top of a grant for overhead
>>and administration is to be expected; more than that raises eyebrows. He also
>>said (and there was a chorus of approval) that a fund-raiser led by one or
>>two volunteers makes money, while a fund-raiser led by committee gets too
>>organized, too complicated, and too stressful -- and fails to meet its goals.
>>(An analysis I'll remember.) I loved hearing about some of the wild ways we
>>theatre people have tried to raise money. Annex has an annual "5 campaign,"
>>in which each Annex artist writes five letters to family and friends asking
>>for money; a silent auction; approaches to private foundations; an annual New
>>Year's Eve party for a $40 ticket (Chris Jeffries: "But you have to
>>understand, Annex throws great parties!!!"); and a celebrity bus tour, which
>>they say was a failure (Without elaborating, Chris said to everyone's
>>amusement:  "Let the celebrities know you're coming!!!"). I said that what I
>>tried to stay away from was fund-raising ideas that took too much energy away
>>from the business of doing theatre, so that while hearing about people's
>>schemes to come out with limited edition greeting cards or calendars to sell
>>was fun, all I could envision was the work, the limited return, and the
>>crates of unsold printed matter moldering in storage.
>>
>>There was also running through this a recurring commentary from Nick that
>>this very discussion was antithetical to Rat, that Rat in its non-organized
>>organizational structure shouldn't be trying to steal money away from AIDS
>>research, for example. Although I understand, as they used to say, "where
>>he's coming from," I see this issue in very different terms. I said that, in
>>L.A. at least, businesses pay an art tax and I'm not trying to steal money
>>away from AIDS research, I'm trying to get at the Walmart money they had to
>>pay into a fund. This went on a bit more until I asked everyone who was
>>pursuing grants to put up his hand. Everyone but one. If ever form became
>>function, it was right then. We got back to discussing grantwriting and
>>fund-raising.
>>
>>My friend Shawn Garrett, a fiction writer (and now publicist) I went to
>>college with, appeared on schedule and we went for a drink at HERE. He'd been
>>around for the last half hour or so of the
>>to-receive-funds-or-not-to-receive-funds debate and while I was expecting him
>>to comment on what a fractious group this could be, he was thrilled just to
>>be in a room full of people dedicated to the arts. I was glad for the
>>perspective. Too often we lose it.
>>
>Michael T. Folie
>

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