Re: RE: RAT Reading Series --What Brecht thinks

[DennisLMo@aol.com]

I guess some people are not paying much attention to the who of Brad's list. 
What differs here, from reading series I know of around town in Philadelphia, 
is the kind of work handled. These are "underground voices" for the most part 
unheard in these parts although they are written about nationally and have a 
kind of root staying power and influence on the contemporary scene. These 
writers represent the lineage going from BACA Downtown: MacWellman, J Jones, 
Erik Ehn, Ruth Margraff, Suzanne Lori Parks, Lauri Carlos, Aishah Rahman and 
others, including myself. Some works go wide and some deep. That is, there 
are mainstream regional voices that play for money and RAT art works that 
stay around and knaw at you for the rest of your life. RAT art is under 
represented in Philly at the moment. The reading series is an initial way in. 
I don't think that the issue of reading series in leu of production applies 
in this case. Since even a reading series of these writers is new stuff for 
this scene. 

I have come to think that integrety begins by understanding who your friends 
are and standing by them. In the arts community that often means to me 
pushing a difficult and challenging aesthetic when the masses at large don't 
buy it right off. How trust people who can't distinguish friend from foe. 
Then there is the matter of personality. Mr. Farkash are you so brilliant 
that a theater will put up with you. 

Love,
Dennis Moritz
Theatre Double