Author
The Archives
-
marketing, p.r.
Decoder II
At the beginning of December, I breached countless confidences, both personal and professional, in order to bring you “Decoder,” a post which revealed the true meaning of timeworn words and phrases seen so often in entertainment marketing and public relations. I crossed that ethical boundary with great trepidation, believing that I might be forever drummed out [...]
-
Uncategorized
Audience Overtures
The murmuring from Canada was startling, and grew louder. First Toronto Globe and Mail theatre critic J. Kelly Nestruck tweeted about the cognitive dissonance of the Canadian national anthem being sung prior to a performance of the musical American Idiot. Various tweets followed, regarding both surprise at the practice and the evident irony of hearing “O Canada” before [...]
-
advocacy, funding and support
When Did Alec Baldwin Become My Spokesman?
01.05.12 | Permalink | 3 CommentsI saw a comment on Twitter this morning which reminded me that Alec Baldwin will be delivering the annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy at the Kennedy Center in April. This is not breaking news; it was announced in November, although a just-issued press release has reinforced awareness of the upcoming event. But [...]
-
Uncategorized
Decoder
I have opined in the past about the dark arts of theatrical billing, marketing and publicity in such posts as This Blog is Prior to Broadway and Blurb. Now, as the holidays approach, I have decided to give you a special gift. You no longer need to try to parse that brochure, that post card, that press item [...]
-
conferences, critics, ideas, journalism, rabble rousing, social media, theatrical ecosystem
Clear
Once upon a time, perhaps 15 or 20 years ago, I read a really fascinating article which posited that the arts would get more coverage in the media if they opened themselves up and provided greater access to the media. It suggested that the arts were working too hard to “control the story” at every [...]
-
Uncategorized
Streaming
Marketing. Advertising. Community Outreach. Audience engagement. Audience Development. Social Networking. Targeted Pitches. And so on. This litany of phrases are among the buzzwords common to anyone who spends their time focused on attracting audiences to the theatre. They appear in the fire hose spray of blogs and tweets that consume my days and those of [...]
-
journalism
Wall
10.31.11 | Permalink | 3 CommentsAnd such a wall, as I would have you think, That had in it a crannied hole or chink… – A Midsummer Night’s Dream I would like to state unequivocally that I believe in a well-funded, independent press/media and that in order to insure it remains as a check against those in power who would [...]
-
audiences, conversation starter, rabble rousing
Walk
10.25.11 | Permalink | 7 CommentsOver the past 48 hours, the culture pages in England have been filled with reports which are all variants of the same story: “Walkouts abound at The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Marat/Sade.” I first spotted this on Sunday in The Daily Mail and since then, the BBC, The Guardian and The Telegraph, among many others, have [...]
-
audiences, community
Blue
I suspect that, for many working in the arts, the weekday matinee is no man’s land. I’m not suggesting that we don’t operate them, or deal with them, but I do wonder the last time any of you have had occasion to attend one as a member of the audience. After all, we’re usually too [...]
-
audiences, facts + figures, funding and support, rabble rousing, theatrical ecosystem
Gross
10.11.11 | Permalink | 9 CommentsThey come, with startling regularity, on Monday and Tuesday each week. “The Grosses.” The Broadway League aggregates and releases the gross sales and attendance for every Broadway show on Monday afternoons (Tuesdays when there’s been a holiday), and a wide range of outlets dutifully report on the biggest hits, the biggest losers, and prognosticate on [...]
-
critics, journalism, rabble rousing
J’recuse
10.07.11 | Permalink | 5 CommentsTweets, blogs and other manners of Internet posting have been aflame since this morning, when Charles Isherwood of The New York Times declared online that he wished to forego having to review any further plays by Adam Rapp. In the ensuing hours, Isherwood has been chastised for the tone of his piece and for seemingly [...]
-
audiences, critics, marketing, p.r., public relations, pull quotes, social media
Blurb
“Everyone,” I wrote in a tweet to promote my previous blog post, “enjoys a good blurbing now and again.” Although I didn’t mind if someone read some perverse double entendre into “blurbing,” it was neither euphemism nor metaphor. I was referring to the time-honored and oft-criticized practice of skillfully extracting positive phrases from arts reportage [...]
