[SML] Frank

[June Abernathy]

> 
> Fri, Mar 2, 2018 at 9:54 PM, Kristi R-C via Stagecraft
> <stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
>> Though we often disagreed, the
>> discourse was always civil and often educational.
>> On Mar 7, 2018, at 3:00 PM, Allison Koster
>>  wrote:
> 
> Before y'all get carried away and pull collective muscles patting yourselves on your collective backs....I'd just like to point out that a statistically-significant portion of the discourse was FAR from civil, and left a very sour taste in the mouths of some of us less-prolific posters, and caused some of us to take long breaks from reading this listserve.
> 
> Theatre is supposed to be a collaboative effort that embraces the ideas and contributions of many, yet the behavior often witnessed here in response to someone such as Frank, who deserved more than a modicum of respect for his passion and years spent working in the craft of theatre, even though some of his ideas did not fall in line with common practices/aesthetics here in the US. He presented a flip side to ponder, and we were richer for the challenge.

While I agree with the fact that our discourse with Frank was not always civil or educational, I also take issue with the notion that the collective response to someone such as Frank must always be as polite and respectful as Allison wishes it had been. 

Yes, he was an eccentric senior citizen from England, whose experiences were very different from most of us in the list. And I admired his passion and his enthusiasm, and his years and his passion deserved some respect. But he was more than just a bit provincial and set in his ways. He was, very often, just a deliberate troll. He relished finding out the best ways to ruffle feathers and push individual Members’s buttons, and though most of us caught on to it pretty quickly and refused to rise to the bait, every once in a while, he pushed hard enough to get push back. He knew it, he expected it, he enjoyed it. 

And, having limited experience, or old fashioned experience, or an unusual design aesthetic still doesn’t give you free license to present opinions, or just plain false information, as fact. Particularly when the same wrong information has been called out and corrected 3000 times before. And, let us not forget that he was fully capable of being pretty rude and disrespectful in turn. The road to incivility ran both ways. 

I wish we could all be generous and sympathetic and charming all of the time. I never want to alienate anyone, or make them feel tentative about expressing their opinions in this forum. But I think a group such as this has a responsibility to push back against deliberate trolling behavior. It would be great if we could always be gracious about it, but we’re human. I miss Frank a bit. But the waters are calmer without him. 

June Abernathy
IATSE Local #321 (Tampa, FL)
FOH Electrician 
The Lion King National Tour
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