Can LA theater survive without adequate coverage from journalists?
More and more I am convinced that the only way that will happen is if someone creates a huge non-profit website to cover LA theater. Combining volunteer reporting (Michael Ritchie used the phrase "peer-review" in a recent discussion on this very topic on KPCC's Airtalk) with professional journalism.
How to make this website work? Let's look to Martin Denton and the New York Theater Experience (NYTE) as an example. This group is a non-profit organization to support the NY Off-Off Broadway "Indie" Theater Community. In New York they call him "St. Martin." He is a former Marriot employee who founded NYTE nine years ago on a whim, after taking an internet training course. Since then, NYTE has grown to be one of the most admirable theater-service organizations in the country. We in LA could learn much from St. Martin.
NYTE is focused on providing online theater coverage. It does not charge dues to the tiny theaters that it serves. Rather, NYTE's revenues come from ad sales and tax-deductible donations.
It maintains nytheater.com, indietheater.org, and nytheatercast.com. They even have mobile.nytheater.com (instant theater on the go, directly to your cell phone!). They have reviews of every small theater show in town. And NY has just about as much small theater as LA. If you are putting on a play, NYTE will review you.
They have great blogs, and they have a wonderful podcast series. These are interviews that Martin conducts with the leading artists in the NY Indie Theater community. These podcasts are such a great chance for dialogue, community, and publicity.
For nine years, NYTE has published annual anthologies of small NY productions. Can you imagine if LA theater were published in an annual anthology? NYTE also hosts annual Indie Theater convocations. I could go on.
If we had an organization like this in LA, perhaps the collapse of theater coverage at the Times and the Weekly would be easier to deal with...
...Pilgrimage to St. Martin anyone? Next time any of you are in NY, call him and ask for a meeting. I'd be happy to facilitate.
Monday, February 2, 2009
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3 comments:
I think we in LA are on our way to get theaters reviewed online, it is just sometimes easier to gripe then change. And that is going to be the biggest hurdle towards coming up with something great that benefits all theaters not just a few who have the money or the celebrities.
I agree. As time passes we are moving more towards the online model for theater reviews. People are getting more comfortable with that.
There are many new examples...
...I just recently came across latheaterreview.com, which is a fine example of volunteer citizen journalism...
...Word on the street is that Boston Court Theater is planning a symposium on the state of LA theater criticism, possibly this summer...
...And did you know that USC has an arts journalism Masters program? Where are those folks going to write if not online?
you are invited!
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