Hatch batch

The recent HATCHfest in Asheville, North Carolina was

"the first international mentoring festival for the creative and media arts communities. This festival is a celebration that springs naturally from the HATCH mission: To provide mentorship, education, inspiration and recognition to the next generation of creative innovators."

The festival was organized by discipline: architecture, design/tech, film, journalism, music and photography. Asheville is a conducive environment for this kind stimulation and mentoring. I am disappointed, however, that theatre was not on the HATCHfest organizers' list of disciplines. In addition to a vigorous exchange of ideas, part of HATCHfest's raison d'etre seems to be business networking. But beyond America's commercially obsessed borders (and within its fringe), theatre artists are much more likely to be woven into the creative fabric of their cultural networks. Many of world's young theatre companies are on the forefront of creative innovations -- innovations whose paradigms those in the more lucrative media could profitably pilfer...

Could a future HATCHfest include the likes of Robert LaPage, Pina Bausch, Elevator Repair Service, Tectonic, etc., just to name a few? Even on the more superficial level, do the organizers know that Sam Mendes got his first film gig (American Beauty) after Spielberg saw his theatrical production of Cabaret?

In Toronto, another "hatch" festival, HATCHLab, includes the iconoclastic theatre company, Stan's Cafe. and an installation show called Of All The People In The World, which I attended in NYC last year.