RAT: PA: Edgfest Roundtable

[ActorsGng1@aol.com]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                 CONTACTS:  Mark Seldis
November 1, 1999                                  (323) 465-0566                
                                                
THE EDGE OF THE WORLD THEATER FESTIVAL
Critics/Artists/Audience Roundtable
Saturday, November 13 at 3pm

The Edge of the World Theater Festival.  Fifty Shows. Twenty Venues. Eight 
Days. One City.

In addition to the many productions, EdgeFest will also present a roundtable 
on Saturday, November 13 at the Los Angeles Theater Center from 3:00pm-5:00pm 
entitled "The Relationship Between the Artists, the Press and the Audience in 
the Los Angeles Theatre Community", which we hope will introduce an open and 
constructive dialogue between these three symbiotic entities. 

EdgeFest co-director of public relations Mark Seldis will be moderating the 
roundtable discussion.  As well as a festival organizer, Seldis is Managing 
Director of The Actors' Gang and a member of the Board of Governors of 
Theatre/LA.  The festival organizers' goal is not to simply have a "bitch 
session" but an honest discussion of the relationship between artists, 
critics and audience in Los Angeles theater. Participants will be encouraged 
to pose questions that they really want answers for, that will help them in 
this three-sided relationship.  This roundtable is not meant to solve 
problems or create plans, it is just the opportunity for face-to-face 
dialogue, to discover as many questions as answers.  

The format is as follows: There will be a circle of chairs onstage for people 
who want to be very involved in the discussion, equally divided between 
artists, critics and audience members.  We invite other people who want to be 
there to sit in the audience and we hope to provide opportunities for those 
people to at least pose questions.  EdgeFest will record the event for replay 
on the website and transcription for publishing.  

Already confirmed for the roundtable are representatives of many of Los 
Angeles' most significant theater companies (Actors' Gang, Bottom's Dream, 
Celebration Theatre, City Garage, Moving Arts, Open Fist Theatre, Co, Sacred 
Fools, Theatre of NOTE, as well as individual artists (Robert Harders, 
Michael Farkash) and members of the press (Wenzel Jones (LADCC), Rob Kendt 
and Scott Proudfit (Backstage West), Steven Leigh Morris (LA Weekly), Michael 
Phillips (LA Times) and Carol Gray of NPR). Our hope is to also have 
representatives of the New Times, American Theatre and publications such as 
the Daily Variety, Downtown News, fab!, Frontiers, Orange County Register, 
Park LaBrea News and Venice Magazine as well as independent journalists such 
as Jan Breslauer and David Mermelstein and critics who are also very active 
as artists (Travis Holder, Randee Trabitz).
 
Anyone wanted to participate or simply attend should contact Mark Seldis at 
the number above or at actorsgang@aol.com or publicity@edgeoftheworld.org

In order to make attending the festival easy for audiences, the festival 
organizers have created an easy to use website at www.edgeoftheworld.org, 
which is constantly updated and features not only schedules of each day, but 
listings organized by Artists, Venues and Productions and visitors to the 
site can also search the site for specific elements, such as cast members.  
There is also a festival message board and festival schedules can be 
downloaded for easy access.  A complete festival guide will appear in the 
November 4th edition of Backstage West.