Although I still subscribe to the print edition of the LA Times, that paper seems to get worse by the day. This year they fired their dance critic. They buried their book review and opinion sections, not to mention the Guide of LA Cultural happenings, relegating their best pieces of journalism to the back pages.
And now it has come to this: it seems they no longer print reviews of small Los Angeles theaters. I haven't seen one review ANYWHERE in the calendar section for weeks except for bigtime shows like South Coast Rep or Pasadena Playhouse. I guess, from their POV, we little guys don't bring in the eyeballs. We don't help their bottom line.
I say Russ Stanton and Sam Zell should go jump in a lake. The LA Times is more than a business. It's a civic institution with the duty to report on and nurture Angelino arts and culture.
Don't we want a theater scene that is dynamic? That is vital? That is world-class? Well, without coverage from the Times, it will be that much harder to get the word out about exciting new work.
What can you do about it, you ask, dearest blogosphere? Email a letter to the LA Times' short-sighted, inexperienced, spineless, puerile editor, Russ Stanton, at letters@latimes.com, and give him a piece of your mind.
Even worse than censoring an artist is ignoring him. I am paraphrasing a bit, but Steven Leigh Morris wrote something very similar to that in the LA Weekly earlier this year. He was discussing ARTEL and their recent piece on Bulgakov, a great show which Steven gave a great, full-page article to when it premiered at Highways space. Were it not for Steven that show would hardly have been covered by the press at all, and Los Angeles would have been the worse for it.
Which brings me to another thing you can do about the sorry state of the LA Times arts coverage: you can celebrate the great theater critics from our weekly street newspapers, who are doing a great job and picking up some of the slack (despite lacking the Times' reach).
Let's focus on one of the finest: Don Shirley at LA CityBeat. Someone should give him a medal or a gift certificate or something.
Don Shirley at LA City Beat apparently goes to see about 300 LA Theater shows a year. God bless him. His writing style is candid, funny, unapologetic, unpolite, dead-on. He treats LA theater companies with the respect of being the legitimate cultural institutions that they are, rather than being subcultural quasi-invisible distractions. He knows about every theater company in town, and has a relationship with them in his writing. Case in point: Don's hilarious column this week in which he trashes the Unknown Theater. Don demonstrates a knowledge of every show they've done for years. Kudos to him. Write a letter to Don's editor at rebeccas@lacitybeat.com.
Another exciting new source of LA theater criticism is the blogosphere itself. LA Stage Alliance's new blog site is a good example.
Perhaps in this Brave New World we won't need the LA Times after all?
Thursday, August 21, 2008
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2 comments:
There is a certain responsibility the Times has to brighten the staff a bit. As an experimental theater artist in LA, thus far, no one has had the space for intellectual critique on aesthetics and the progression of the art form. The Box of mass media has stifled peoples ability to have in depth discussion and debate; the kind of environment that would foster more and better culturally influenced and influential work. (and the hell with kitchen sink dramas).
I just need to get in touch with this Don Shirley guy...
PDG you're right on.
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