Some folks consider it a movement, some a network of like-minded artists, some the savior of an art form dying under the weight of its own ossified institutions. What is most clear about RAT is that it is about theatre and at least in part about bringing together people who believe in theatre. In a way, it figures that the theatre artists would wind up here in the thick of our most brutal season. But then, musicians have a leg up on theatre artists these days. They face struggles in the pursuit of their art, sure, but at least when they face whatever hardships they may, they can take some comfort in the knowledge that music is still a form with some currency in our society.
People listen to it.
They talk about it. It concerns them. But it's often hard to tell who else. When the number of empty seats far outnumber the ones with patrons in them, when the amount of media attention is anemic compared to what's accorded athletics, when the financial support dries up faster than a puddle in West Texas, it sure makes theatre seem like a big yawn to most of the country. Which is hardship enough for those producers who have grand auditoriums in which to stage theatre and budgets in the six-figure range or better, but it's doubly tough for the smaller producers, the independent companies and individual artists who work in spaces of 150 seats or fewer, who may be juggling their artistic efforts with fulltime jobs, who may be getting by only by the grace of their credit card limits.