Re: RAT Reading Series --What Brecht thinks

[MFarkash@aol.com]

Brad, I agree with Kelly Stuart.

You ought to reimburse Karen for her plane ticket and expenses. That should 
be the least to make amends.

You also ought to stop arranging festivals if you can't handle the logistics, 
or find a support staff to help you.

I also urge all Rat-list people to consider the reaction of professional 
theatre people if they learn that you ("you" being the playwrights being 
read) traveled all that way for a "reading."  C'mon people, this is not the 
Taper, and it's not the Public (in its heyday) Playwrights, I urge you all to 
save your bucks and arrange for a production of your own, in your own town. 
Heck, I've put on my plays for just a couple of hundred bucks, with the help 
of a willing theatre.  I hereby encourage everyone to re-read Grotowski's 
"Towards a Poor Theatre."

In my experience, the vast percentage of plays being "read" do not get 
produced, unless the play is hosted by a theatre intent on making that play a 
reality.

As for "challenging me" to make a year's worth of theatre -- I have arranged 
venues for the plays for other people, worthy playwrights in this area. Not 
readings, but actual productions, and I've helped produce them.  I challenged 
YOU to eliminate your reading series and produce a worthy play instead.

I hope you weren't serious about having "press" there. That's a disservice to 
the plays and the writers -- to critique a reading, or have the press talk 
about the pieces.