The Future of Theater Criticism and Me Playing Devil's Advocate

This image has no relation to theater. I just wanted to use it.

So this past week was an eventful one. "American Theatre" finally launch our podcast series (the idea sparked by yours truly and edited by me as well). Howlround ran a very well-written series of essays about theater criticism, curated by my colleage Rob Weinert-Kendt. Roger Ebert died (though not before filing his very last review, proving that right up to the end, your movie sucked). And "Back Stage," the august trade publication for actors, got rid of its film and theater reviews.

And the Internet (or at least my tiny corner) fell apart. Or rather, regarding "Back Stage," there were comments like this, this and this. And many others. In short, people were not happy.

But to this I ask, was anyone really surprised? After all, "Time Out Chicago" announced that they were going online-only and eliminating 60% of their staff. "Variety" is no longer printing out a daily edition and fired its longtime film and theater critic in 2010. And downsizing and depression rages in publications across the nation. Arts journalism is floundering and it's scary. I've been scared ever since I decided, during a recession, that I was going to be a journalist and that print was dying and I should count myself lucky if I ever got a job. 

Were we surprised that "Back Stage" decided to follow what is already an industry-wide trend in downsizing? And if the reasons truly were, as executive editor Daniel Holloway explained, "the metrics," aka the lack of hits, can we blame them?

These days, not even theater artists can seem to agree on why reviews and criticism are important, if they're important at all. In this age of lacking arts coverage, you'd think people would argue less about "Why can't artists be critics?" "Why can't critics hang out with us first?" "Why can't we get better critics?" and more about, "How do we save criticism which is how we get publicity?"

The quandary as I see it (at the moment because I'm young and prone to changing my mind) is the question for any theater artist: how do you get the audience to engage with your work? For theater artists, it's how do you get the audience to engage so that they will buy a ticket and then tell their friends. For journalists it's: how do you get people to read the article?

Writing Quote of the Day

In journalism just one fact that is false prejudices the entire work. In contrast, in fiction one single fact that is true gives legitimacy to the entire work. That’s the only difference, and it lies in the commitment of the writer. A novelist can do anything he wants so long as he makes people believe in it. - Gabriel García Márquez for the Paris Review

That's fortuitous. Though I can't quite agree with him on the function of a tape recorder (which I find is better for accuracy and long conversations), but to each their own. Now the next question is, what function does truth have in creative nonfiction?

Pushing Daisey

 An interesting thing happened on Friday. Of course, to my managing editor and editor-in-chief, it was a face-palm-worthy thing. For me, it was interesting, because it called to question the nature of full disclosure statements.

Mike Daisey's The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, which I blogged about as an example of provocative, on-the-ball, anxiety-inducing work, turned out to be partially fabricated. Consequently, "This American Life," which had aired a portion of the monologue and posited it as truth, aired a retraction episode to clear up the, what we journalists call, "factual errors."

Understandably, the Internet blew up, especially the theater people on Twitter.

Terry Teachout of Washington Post called it "unforgiveable." Issac Butler told everyone via Twitter to chill out until TAL aired the retraction episode.

And even Roger Ebert called that Mr. Daisey is a "fraudster." That made me sad because it simplifies the issue.

On the Ball

But the March issue of American Theatre is out today, with a very prescient story about gay marriage as a theme. Considering that gay marriage is now a reality in Washington, New York, Maryland, really close in California and (if it wasn't for Chris Christie) New Jersey. See everyone? The American theater is not always behind the trend! Sometimes, we're actually running alongside it.

credit: Sara Krulwich, NYTimes

And in other news, I finally stopped being lazy and saw The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at the Public Theater down in the East Village on Tuesday. It was one of those moments where you knew what you were getting into (which was the reason why I had put it off for so long, I knew it was going to be good but a downer of a night. I was partially right). In this case, I knew I was going to be treated to an evening of a firsthand account of Mike Daisey's, the monologist, trip to China and to Foxconn, the factory that makes half of the world's electronics, including Apple's. And how that factory treats its workers, how it puts them through 12-16 hour shifts (one man died after working a 36-hour shift while Mr. Daisey was there) and how it throws them away like defective machines when their hands become too misshapen and carpal-tunnel-ridden from doing the same repetitive motion (assembling iPhone, iMacs, iPad, etc parts) for years.

I knew all that. But there's something about a story that's being told just right, in a relateable, sometimes funny, and oftentimes harrowing language that brings the point home. Especially when that story is told in the form of a retrospective, based on first-hand accounts.

You can download the monologue at Mike Daisey's website and read it and perform it at your leisure. And you can read the expose on Foxconn from the New York Times that was researched and published at the same time as when Mr. Daisey was performing in one-man-show.

Coincidence? Or theater doing its job? After all, isn't that the point of art, to hold up a clear (not rosy-colored) mirror to society? The argument for the importance of art is convincing when there are pieces like Agony and the plays mentioned in the gay marriage article being made.

And I also want to give a shout-out to that thing that I love more than theater: journalism. Real, investigative journalism. Not soundbites taken straight from a press release that passes for journalism on TV (no offense to broadcast reporters but really, someone please call Rick Santorum out on his three degrees in light of his claim that colleges are for "snobs"). From the Times expose on Foxconn, which attracted more than 1,000 comments, and petitions, letters and demonstrations, people are finally thinking actively about green technology. Finally, being a TRUTH avenger is a good thing again.

Of that Pain in My Side Known As New Media

So one of the terrible repercussions of being a modern, young, up-and-coming journalist is this little thing known as: the Internet. Who knew that magical device which made it easier for me to kill hours of time like a super stealthy ninja, and research from the comforts of my laptop when I was a naive youngster, would also make it that much harder for me to get a job?

Because the consensus I have heard since I have started this career path is that the old model is disappearing (ie: the paper newspaper). Instead, to be a journalist now, you cannot just be a writer. Oh no, you must be like Leonardo da Vinci, a Renaissance man or someone who knows how to do a lot of things and has a lot of free time on their hands.

That's because with the growth of blogging, social media, and Wikipedia with its mass-editing format, it's becoming increasingly easy for anyone to write and to shout into the universe. And with all of those voices, you have to fight to be heard now, and to attract paying readers.

Hence new skills for the journalist.

In addition to learning how to write better, I have been trying to master the art of the following things: blogging regularly, gaining more Twitter followers, shooting and editing video, master website coding and designing my own logo. All in the name of attracting readers into my story and keeping them there.

So far, I've gone through the first three and I'm kind of getting the hang of it. But then there's that last two.

And somehow, doing all of this new media work will land me a job, or at least put me in the running for one. At the very least, I get to play with the Adobe suite for hours on end...

I miss the days where all I had to do was worry about writing. Instead, it's not just about the writing, but how you present it. What new, eye-popping way can you present the information that will make people want to read it? And even more-so than that, how many skills can you show off to a potential employer, like a juggling monkey? In an increasingly slimming market, where there is more information coming out than there are writers, for perhaps the first time in publication history since the invention of the newspaper.

But on the upside, I have become quite skilled at the intricacies in Final Cut Express, so much so that I've gotten this little bit published. If you're not a Syracuse University admirer, or student, then the following piece might be a bit dull.

The Big Orange in the Big Apple (I designed the map myself)

P.S. And why did I decide to put Eve from "Wall-E" as the photo? Because she was designed by Apple.