RAT NYC Rat diary Day One - 8/15/97

[leewochner@movingarts.org (Lee Wochner)]

I was once a new Rat attending my first conference, so I know the sense of
"What Is This Again?" that some of you are no doubt having. Given that, I
thought I'd post my four-day RAT diary from the NYC conference two years
ago to give newer Rats some idea of what to look forward to -- or, at
least, what NYC was like. (In a word, GREAT.)

Lee




>
>>Return-Path: <LeeWochner@aol.com>
>>From: LeeWochner@aol.com
>>Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 02:35:48 -0400 (EDT)
>>To: Subkulture@aol.com, foliemayer@pipeline.com
>>Subject: NYC Rat diary Day One - 8/15/97
>>
>>I arrive at the big Rat get-acquainted session at the East 4th Street Theatre
>>at 5:20, newly recovered from lugging three heavy bags of luggage for a
>>12-minute uphill walk through swamp-like humidity because I got off on the
>>wrong subway stop. (An error I am determined not to repeat.) New York is
>>steamy. I've lived in L.A. for nine years now; before that, I lived my whole
>>life in Atlantic City. Moving to L.A. got me away from at least two things I
>>was glad to leave behind -- dense pools of water in the air and hay fever.
>>Well, I packed lots of shorts.
>>
>>I start talking with Kerri from Woolly Mammoth in D.C., the only person I
>>know previously from an in-the-flesh meeting (Kerri and I met during last
>>summer's Common Ground Festival presented by A.S.K. Theatre Projects at
>>UCLA.) Then the 30-odd of us in attendance pulls our chairs into a circle and
>>everyone takes a turn introducing himself. (For an organization dedicated to
>>new approaches, it doesn't escape my notice that, many many years after grade
>>school and cub scouts, etc., this is still the proper format for
>>introduction. Anyway....) I'm glad to hear that we've got 5 or 6 bright eager
>>new people via the website. (I'm a passionate advocate of using the Internet
>>to expand the audience.) I look over the schedule of events for the 10-day
>>conference and discern a breakdown:  events for those who believe in
>>non-leadership, non-economics, and, perhaps, non-growth, and events for those
>>willing to shake hands with the devil and see if they lose the hand. So while
>>on the one side you've got a roundtable to discuss eliminating the box
>>office, on the other you've got one dedicated to grantwriting and
>>fundraising. While you've got some sort of "we're going to all dance our own
>>pieces in this big 10-person movement thing in the streets without a leader,"
>>you've also got short-short play readings organized at least somewhat around
>>traditional notions (i.e., having a playwright and a script). This dichotomy
>>is healthy. Theatre needs to be inclusive, especially of its own artists. I
>>won't be dancing in the streets and I won't be eliminating the box office,
>>but I might at least go see who will be.
>>
>>I wind up talking with Ed Hawkins and Chris Jeffries from the Annex Theatre
>>in Seattle. Actually, they start talking with me. They're immediately the
>>friendly open sorts I gravitate to, but Ed heard me mention the Moving Arts
>>playwrights' catalog, a program my theatre started to help get our
>>playwrights get second and third productions around the country. He wants a
>>copy, which of course I will mail when I get back to L.A. We hit it off, so
>>Ed and Chris and Kerri and her husband Ian from Washington (DC) Shakespeare
>>Company head off for dinner, all the time debating down the street who's the
>>leader of our expedition for Thai food. "You're the leader!" No, YOU'RE the
>> leader!" It's whimsical fun.
>>
>>At dinner we trade hard information and inside poop about our own
>>organizations and, of course, everyone else. It's all water-cooler talk on a
>>larger scale. Producing theatre in L.A. presents special problems -- dealing
>>with showcase work, the bad rap L.A. itself has gotten, and sussing out which
>>of the 200 or so theatres are producing worthwhile theatre -- but so does
>>producing in Washington, DC or Seattle. I love the fundraising stories. (All
>>right, maybe I'm an old bore already.) Kerri, who is director of development
>>for Woolly Mammoth, talks about having lunch with the development director
>>for the DC Opera, who is able to raise money pretty much by waving a wand.
>>It's a hilarious story of a woman who raises millions annually off Placido
>>Domingo's name staring blankly into the eyes of a woman who announces eagerly
>>that her last fund-raiser cleared $13,000. Ed tells a story that gets so
>>interesting it eventually gets lost in the details (and winds up finished two
>>hours later across town when he says, "Oh! I never got to finish--!") but
>>essentially it involves a silent auction at which they auctioned off a
>>donated Mayor McCheese head from McDonald's. The crowd at the auction roared
>>with approval and the cheesehead brought $500 into the Annex coffers. I can
>>appreciate the verisimilitude. I also find myself strangely wanting that
>>cheesehead too.
>>
>>We check back into East 4th, conveniently located right next door to KGB, one
>>of my favorite bars on the planet and one that brings back fond memories of
>>1994, when I had a play at the Kraine (same building), then head over to
>>Here, the prescribed location for informal late-night talk. Jason Neulander
>>from Salvage Vanguard (Austin) shows up, as does another Jason (I hope I got
>>that right), this one from Frontera at Hyde Park (Texas). We talk some more
>>theatre, have another couple of beers, I have a cigar, and then, at 11:30, I
>>have to admit I'm beat. Three and a half hours sleep didn't adequately
>>prepare me for the first Rat day. Besides, I know when I get back to my
>>temporary digs in Brooklyn it's going to be a couple of hours of
>>telecommuting on the Powerbook -- it's never been easier to run your theatre
>>from anywhere on the planet. Time off? What's that? From 3000 miles away, I'm
>>email-conferencing with an associate producer at Moving Arts about which
>>directors I want for which plays in the one-act festival.
>>
>>Before bed I finally take 10 minutes and read the Village Voice's piece on
>>Rat. I'm a newcomer to Rat (although not to these sorts of issues) and I
>>think most of this is stupid. Will this non-organization organization be dead
>>within seven years of its founding (like the Dadaists) as predicted by the
>>Village Voice? Even pessimistic me thinks not. The Voice has missed the
>>point. This isn't a national Republican party driven to distraction by
>>factionalism. Rat is a network -- a loose conglomeration of like- (and
>>unlike-)minded theatremakers from around the country. Since we don't have
>>bylaws or overhead, what's to stop us from meeting once a year 'til, well,
>>Hell freezes over? Absolutely nothing, except growing to hate one another. So
>>that is the enemy to guard against. In the meantime, like those hippies from
>>Liverpool said, the rat you take is equal to the rat you make. In just one
>>night I feel that I've learned enough and met enough new people to make the
>>trip worthwhile. And there are still nine days to go. Is that idealism? Am I,
>>too, some pie-in-the-sky cheesehead? I don't think so. But maybe I'm not a
>>cynical greedhead either. I just got here, but Rat seems pretty good to me.

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