Re: RAT solipsism/vanity

[jonoh1@juno.com]

On Thu, 30 Dec 1999 14:58:31 GMT "Glen-Skip- Newell"
<skipworthy@hotmail.com> writes:
>>From: "Donna Sherritt" <ohbelladonna@hotmail.com>
>>We are so good at wiping each other's noses and shaking our 
>sympathetic
>>heads in communal disgust.  If we spent some time with 
>non-theatrical
>>institutions within the community, I wonder what would happen to our 
>work?
>
>
>DOH !!!! The work would sudden ly become...here's a thought...RELEVANT 
>to 
>our audience, and thus promote attendence and support as well as 
>understanding....


I spend my entire life <surrounded> by non-theatrical institutions within
the community. The number of theatre people in my social circle is
minimal. Conversations around our table run from applied physics to
microbiology to the arts. Not that I understand a single word anyone is
saying, of course. Personally I believe that my perspective after 46
years on this planet is relevant enough to back up my theatrical
endeavors. My work will never "suddenly become relevant". It always has
been. It's art, dammit. Art does not have to be consumed with the greater
community good to be relevant. (Though it <does> help). Art is relevant
because it's art. Mediocre art is irrelevant because it's mediocre art.
And bad art is lauded because it's funded.
Ok, that last part was just an unwarranted dig. 
  Regardless, I don't believe that just because people suddenly imagine a
theatre piece to be relevant they will flock to the doors of our
theatres. There are many considerations here. Education being one. Money
(theirs) being another. Perceived and/or blatant elitism, television,
self-indulgence. The list goes on. I'm all for being involved with the
community. But I don't see it as a guarantee of bigger box office. And
it's kind of cheap to look at community service in that way, don't you
think?
Jonathan
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