Re: Re. RAT In the service of moving on// readings / Brad R.

[brad rothbart <scrdchao@nni.com>]

)
>Brad bumped the reading to attend an awards show, or because he considered
>the awards show would conflict with his reading, and that he failed to inform
>her, and that HE KEPT THE ISSUE ALIVE ON THE P UBLIC LISTS, all the while
>complaining it was a private matter.  Thank you, Brad.

 I think you are the one now keeping this alive, M. Farakash, and you need
to consider what need this is meeting for you
>
>I still take issue with the fact that the prominent bio in the press release
>was Brad's extensive bio.  Five lines would have done, not a novel.

 I have the pPress release right here- it was eight lines- you want blood
over three lines??
Also, it was  followed by a reading-specific  press release in which my
name never appears....
>
>I still believe that readings are useful if they audition the play for a
>particular theatre or producer who may stage the play. Or if there's money
>involved for the actors (that's a cool element of ASK).   Other than that,
>new plays ought to be workshopped for friends or one's own writers' group.

 S o,let me see-- new playwrights shouldn't be heard until they are seen-
but, of course, work which stretches form doesn't get doner because it
can't make money ( you can reference LATC , which had the sheer guts to do
THE HIP-HOP WALTZ OF EURYDICE, and ended up falling on it' sword for it.)
You want to create the Playwright as Van Gogh??
>
>I'm also tired of being invited to readings where the same durned play is
>read over and over.  So many playwrights abound  -- and yet ASK, the Taper,
>this Philly group and other groups keep promoting overexposed playwrights --
>the same playwrights year after year.


Reality Alert. I don't know what theatre world you're in, but I'd sure like
to join you.  A GIRL'S GUIDE TO THE DIVINE COMEDY  was produced once, at
the Boston Women's Center, director- Maureen Shea. Cairidad Svich has never
been heard in Philadelphia. Same with Ruth Margraff. And David Simpatico's
work is a new one,  Steven Tomlinson's play just had its world premiere in
Austin, Alice Tuan has never been done here..... Perhaps this list looks
familliar to you  because there are a number of LA writers on it, but out
here these people  are unknown..  Are there only a couple of dozen
 >worthy writers in America

?No. I can name fifty  wonderful plays I've read in two months.....
This is only the first round..There will be more writers heard...

.Are there no homegrown writers in Philly?

 There are. And there  are  two very good reading series already devoted to
their work.  Rather than A) duplicating efforts and B) seeming to compete,
I chose to focus on Non-Philadelphia writers,since Phiily writers are
already well-served.
>
>Many readings make me furious because   a) the play wasn't ready to be read
>b) the readings are thrown out there in the wild hope a producer will
>magically show up to make it happen     c) it's easier than actually staging
>a play.

 Read the workI'm doing , before you judge.  Ooops- you can't.. Why not-
because most of these plays aren't published. Why not - because they aren't
produced. Why not? Because they aren't seen as money-making commodities  in
the land of "show business." So, it seems to me that one way to get rarely
produced plays back into the public conciousness is by reading them. for
that, I am excoriated....
>
>
>---
>My other point was simply this:   Lit. managers or artistic directors who
>don't care enough about the language to spell or add punctuation in an E MAIL
>are suspect -- they're probably not likely to put the care into staging a
>play, either.  Plays are the last bastion of the language-driven form.
>(Poetry could be, too, but most contemporary poets I encounter can't tell the
>difference between a short story and an extended poem.) Yes, bend the rules,
>but only if you know what they are, first.

HEY, DR. FREUD. "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, " remember.

 Fast brain Slow hands, lousy typist. If I don't put the though down, I
lose it.  End of story.  Thereis a great difference between a hundred-hour
rehearsal schedule and  a quick email response, and if  have that limited
an understanding of dynamics-- I sure don't want to be directed by you.

 Thoroughly annoyed,


--brad
>
>
>MF