DEALING WITH THE ECONOMIC DIVIDE

Time banking is increasingly popular as the economic crisis grows. Creative ways to survive will have to be developed and this is certainly one of them.

I wrote a play last week set in the context of my public access TV show called This Issue. I met with two visual artists and an actor today and we went through the play and did some brainstorming about it. Came out nice.

The play is about me interviewing two members of the "upper crust" on my TV show- getting their reactions about the growing economic divide between the rich and the rest of us. The names of the characters in the play are Constance and Herman Dollagrabber.

We are going to do it in the TV studio and then put it on the air - no editing - what you see is what we'll get. Should be fun to do and we'll see how it comes out. Not likely to get it filmed for a couple more weeks which will give us some more time to tinker with the copy and get our props lined up.

It's based on a true story where I was once in a local coffee shop and a guy in a suit came up to me and said, "How come you never interview anyone from the 'other side' on your show?" I told him that the "other side" is on mainstream media all the time but you virtually never get to see the kind of grassroots folks I interview getting their fair share of coverage in the media.

But I changed my mind and wrote this play to give the "other side" their moment in the sun....