Who's Getting WET?
Fredonia NY – During an all-day tech rehearsal, while designers and technicians write cues and try to get used to the new light board and such, there is a lot of time to sit and do nothing but cruise the net. So I came across this little number as I was reading Arts Journal.
This, to me, is the classic arrogance of New York City theatre – sueing another theatre company 3,000 miles away over an acronym. Two quotes from the article are particularly relevant:
“This is a bullying tactic,” said Gina Driscoll, an attorney and a member of the advisory board at Washington Ensemble Theatre. “If somebody files a federal complaint, you have to answer—and if somebody’s not in a position to fight it, they have to lie down and comply. They’ve put us between a rock and a hard place.”
“What is the state of nonprofit theater in America today,” asked Washington Ensemble Theatre member Marya Sea Kaminski, “when one theater across the country doesn’t believe we can co-exist in a national marketplace, and would rather tie up both their artists and ours in lawsuits and going to court instead of making art?”
What, indeed? -twl
Tom,
Your prejudice and easy assignment of the stereotype is not helpful here. Exactly how is the abhorrent behavior of the two isolated scam artists running a shell theatre representative of the “classic arrogance of New York City theatre?” The WET group in Washington is more representative of the small theatre groups in the city than the plaintiff is.
From the article:
“Since its founding in 1999, Women’s Expressive Theatre has produced seven plays, 11 fundraisers, and an outreach program for young girls. In 2006, it had an income of $124,971. Its largest expense was the salaries of founding directors Victoria Pettibone and Sasha Eden, at over $40,000 each. Women’s Expressive Theater was awarded U.S. trademark registration number 3,125,889 for the name “WET” in August 2006.”
“Since its founding in 2004, Washington Ensemble Theatre has produced 12 plays, three fundraisers, and an outreach program for queer youth. In 2006, it had an income of $61,000. No ensemble members have ever drawn a salary from the company.”
The ambition of the reporter of this story is obvious. The hope is that Victoria and Sasha will lose their WET t-shirts through the scandal of this lawsuit and especially the public scrutiny of their theatre finances. I think most theatre people in New York would hope for the same.