I still think we should get together, get a coupla hotel rooms and get drunk in the hot tub, solving theater’s problems one bottle of Scotch at a time.

I think this communicating via pronouncements and instant dissent is both addictive and productive and is a tipping point in and of itself. Sort of like a cyber-Algonquin Round Table with lots and lots of chairs.

RZ,

I’m not sure it would take a lot of balls to come to your BBQ and be given the cold shoulder or told what a dick I am. Thus far, your wounded bird/protective mother act hasn’t demonstrated that you have any interest at all in discussing the merits and flaws in your work so why, oh, why would I waste my time?

Bottom line, my advice is to give it a rest.

I’m glad you’ve all worked it out for yourselves. =) And, thanks Nick … you spoke where my mind has been the last few days.

Yeah, we’re actually having a celebratory BBQ for The Skriker and A View from the Bridge on May 24th. I feel DV and I are able to have pretty honest conversation without the assistance of alcohol … I’m about the same in person as I am in the comments. But, I won’t be getting liquored up this time around because I’m “knocked up” as they call it. So … Scott, you’re more than welcome to come by. Don … I cannot speak for the reception you might receive from the actors and my assistant director, and I’ve got this creature in my belly that I don’t want to get too riled up, but, if your balls are as big as you say they are, you’re welcome to come, too. DV’s got the info.

RZ

“Don is always going to think that humanity is mostly comprised of stupid cretins, you are always going to complain that my stated focus on regional diversity creates an us/them paradigm, dv is always going to insist on immediate practical actions, and I am certainly not going to abandon my ideas either.”

Stalemate, indeed.

Scott, I’ll hope you’ll get back to blogging with renewed spirit when the time is right. We’ll always keep your guest post spot open here!

I respect what you have and continue to do with the RAT conference and Ratsass, while at the same time I find your tired resignation a bit disconcerting. If I held your philosophy, I would simply stop doing anything and instead would enjoy my golden years in sleepy comfort. Instead, I am trying to put my knowledge to good use.

I believe change is possible and tipping points are reached. Scientists had been talking for years about global warming, but suddenly the conversation tipped because Al Gore was there at the right place with the right message. There are probably a lot of environmentalists who are burning over Johnny-come-lately Gore getting the Nobel Prize for popularizing their science, but there you are. Maybe Mike Daisey is the tipping point, maybe somebody else down the road is, but the process has to continue, the ball has to roll.

After two and a half years, I am not tired of the fight. But what I am tired of is having the same damn fight over and over with a small group of people who are never going to budge. Most of my readers are from NYC and Chicago, which is absurd given that everything I write is to develop theatre outside those cities. So I am constantly being challenged to address that group, who stubbornly refuse to budge. Don is always going to think that humanity is mostly comprised of stupid cretins, you are always going to complain that my stated focus on regional diversity creates an us/them paradigm, dv is always going to insist on immediate practical actions, and I am certainly not going to abandon my ideas either. Stalemate. I have some important things to get done that are being untracked by the constant bickering.

Well, yeah, exactly. But between “what ought to be” and “what is” is the habit and convention of a theatre culture that is difficult to change. With some difficulty, I can change myself. But as for the rest of the culture, I feel much as you do now. I have grown weary of the argument. Yet, *sigh*, I will carry on.

You have closed the tribe and regional theatre argument at Theatre Ideas, even as it has also been co-opted into Mike Daisey’s PR package for his production. A Sunday theatre tea and soirée on “the failure of regional theatre” held in a New York Off-Broadway theatre is such an ironic comment on itself that nothing more has to be said about it. So I’ll retire from that talk for now. The argument was there 15 years ago when we began the Regional Alternative Theatre confederacy, and it will be there long after Mike moves on from the subject to his next show. By the way, Scott my friend, the argument will be there long after your Tribe book is published as well. I am not claiming some holier-than-thou place, but I have been walking this walk as long as anyone, and longer than most. Your two-and-half years of blog posts are a piss in the bucket on this argument. I dragged David Cote, John Clancy, and many others to the mat on this subject ten years ago. I often had to play Andre, the motherfucking Giant, as many New York artists and critics tag-teamed me on my stance against a New York centric agenda and commercialization of alternative and fringe theatre in this country. This fight is not something you win; it’s just something you continue on with. You just keep getting into the ring with these little punks. Yeah, you get tired. I closed the rat-list down because the punks were non-stop with their empty-headed billboard promotion of themselves. Once the “shameless plug” apology in their posts was no longer an apology but a badge of honor, the game there was essentially over. I continue the arguments I had hosted at the rat-list at the LMDA listserv now, which has the ear of many artistic directors and others working in regional theatre. I make these debates public as blog posts when I have the time to compose them and I think they can have some further effect beyond that private audience. Writing Rat Sass is a lonely ass occupation. I have been ostracized by the NYC bloggers. But I thought I was finding a home with Don, Scott, Bob, and others at Theatre Ideas and its extension into the theatrosphere. I had gifts planned for all at our first face-to-face gathering.

http://www.bswatch.com/

*sigh* Carry on, friends.

I couldn’t agree more with that last statement. Amen.

I think theatre does this often pre-production, the negative being Richard Nelson’s “developmental hell.” But once its a “product,” it’s difficult to talk about it as if it were still a process. I’d have to reread for specifics, but I think that approach was at least partially attempted in Don’s review.