On 9 Mar 2000, Chris Goode wrote:
> if you don't wind up with a real woofer every so often, an important
> part of the idea of the benefits of liveness will have somehow become lost,
- strong sympathy with this approach: so often we're being hobnailed into
some grizzly degree of uniformity of programming which seems the opposite
of "live" to me, and as an organiser I reserve the right/expectation to
make the odd mistake - not many grant-giving bodies agree... (in academic
research this attitude has arguably resulted in the situation where
researchers daren't ask questions they don't already know the answers
to...).
- strong sympathy too with the minimalist-intervention school of readings
/ performance organisation. Too much prescription is ghastly, potentially
part of the same uniformity-drive referred to above, and Rip's
well-intentioned guidelines, each point of which I understand, when read
cold, can smack a little of the seaside landlady...
ON THE OTHER HAND as a reader I do like to know what expectations I'm
walking into when I accept a reading. Am I reading with someone or on my
own? How long a reading is expected of me, and can I vary this by
negotiation if I want to? Will the bar/cafe stop serving during my
reading? Are there any traditions of the house (several long intervals in
the bar / q&a sessions at the end / requirement to look at / listen to /
comment on local writers' work...)? Is the room ok for light / sound etc?
It doesn't seem unreasonable to ask an organiser to provide such
information...
It also doesn't seem unreasonable to ask a poet to give of his / her best
at a reading, though how that's interpreted would have to be pretty open.
Like Rip I'm tired of monotonous mumblers and flatulent wafflers - but
then I'm also alergic to that Church of England Vicar voice which trails
off at the end of each sentence, and poet who after 20 years experience
still fumbles around for the one he's got written on the back of a cig
packet somewhere, and the one who talks audibly to his pals while other
peope are reading, etc etc, don't start me... these are risks you take
when you book a reader...
But Rip, your guidelines are obviously based on your own experiences: you
can surely help the many other organisers on this list by sharing these
experiences with us in the way Lawrence and I sometimes do, by writing
notes on the readings you put on: this gives you a chance not only to
effectively dish the dirt on the mutterers and wafflers, but more
importantly tell us who's good enough to meet your rigorous standards!
RC
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