August 2010

An artistic director said recently on a podcast that an audience is really at a disadvantage when it comes to seeing a play. They are getting to look at a show just once, something the cast and artistic team will have lived with and explored countless times over weeks [and sometimes months]. I might add that it is doubly hard for the critic, who not only has to see the production just once, he or she has to write about and pass judgment on it in what feels like a blink of the eye. Sure we read the script ahead of time and if it's available, we'll look at a video of the work. But a script is a kind of blueprint - spare and suggestive at best - and a movie is a whole other animal, opened up visually and often truncated verbally as it is rewritten to suit the medium.

This isn't the case in sports, where some of the best criticism is offered up to the public on a daily basis. To take my favorite sport, baseball, one has only to glance at the press box to envision a world of theater criticism for the future. Laptops are out, along with plentiful space for notepads and books, and the writers leisurely resort to them as they prepare their stories. Video replays help to define the action. And there's the helpful assistant to relay data and supply anecdotes. When the game is over, reporters have full access to the clubhouse where they can interview the players and tape record their discussions for accuracy. The members of the press don't just cover opening day or the first game of a series; they cover their team or sport on a daily basis over the course of a season.

To get the kind of criticism they want and the audience they need, theaters will have to provide the level of accommodation seen in the fastest growing business in America, professional sports. Theaters will have to break down that real fourth wall between "them and us" and allow the critic greater ease in covering a show. That means providing space for electronically recording a review (just like you have in a classroom, I might add), access to dressing rooms to interview actors, directors, and designers, and the opportunity of attending shows multiple times (as needed) to get the story right. In fact, any technological tool out there which our younger patrons expect to see and use routinely - YouTube comes to mind - should be considered for employment. Yeah, sure there are copyright issues and unions to be concerned with. But when it comes to your survival as an institution, why object? Wouldn't you like to see your theater out there on the big wide web, with a video gone viral? Repeat three times: There is no such thing as bad publicity! Before too long, those coffee cups, tee shirts, posters, and dare I say it: Credit Cards (!) will be gobbled up. And you will be well along the way to branding your worthy artistic enterprise. One can only hope ... the first steps are always the hardest.