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RAT: PA: Edgfest Roundtable
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.