The Edge of the World As We Know It

The discussion during the round-table homed in on that frustration, targeting the usual suspects: the lack of grant money, shoddy publicity campaigns, high ticket prices, all of which are largely beside the point -- a point best expressed in publicist Jerry Charlson‘s anecdote about his futile efforts to convince a local TV station that, despite the hours and hours of televised vomit spewed forth during local ”news“ broadcasts, perhaps one minute of air-time per week could be devoted to the theater. No such luck. We live in a city that blithely disregards one of its most vibrant cultural arteries. The attitude, the apathy, is in -- and on -- the air.

The Edge of the World Theater Festival is a tiny voice-in-the-void that must continue and gain resonance, a declaration by a well-entrenched and largely ignored arts community that it does, indeed, exist -- and for the best of reasons, despite the impediments that come with poverty: to produce works of theater designed to provoke, intellectually and emotionally; to offer alternatives to, and commentary on, the kinds of entertainment seen on our TV, movie and computer screens. The festival’s function at this point is to make a little noise, create a scene. The strategy appears to be working. As with last year, the hub venues reported booming attendance during the festival‘s 10 days. But logistical questions remain. Scheduling, for instance: On a typical night -- Friday, November 17, for example -- there were 29 different shows slated for 8 p.m., all at different locations; then anywhere from one to three events during each of the remaining time slots. Such stacking of shows during the prime-time slot makes it impossible to see the festival in its entirety, or to get a sense of its scale. And if shows can be staggered more evenly through the night, can they also then be located at theaters adjacent to subway stations? TheatreTheater, Stella Adler, the Hollywood Court and Open Fist (Hollywood and Highland), the Tamarind theater and Actors Co-op (Hollywood and Vine) all come to mind, not to mention the cluster of Valley theaters adjoining the North Hollywood station. If the festival can help get audiences off the freeways and onto the trains, the experience of theatergoing in Los Angeles might come to resemble that in Chicago, Seattle and New York, places that people-in-the-know like to refer to as ”theater cities.“ Along the same lines, how about more deals with local restaurants for discount coupons? As Anthony Burns from Burning Wheel and the Mark Taper Forum pointed out during the roundtable, ”People go to rock concerts not only for shows but for the community. We have to start thinking not only of the 90 minutes on the stage, but what happens before and after those 90 minutes.“