On Monday, much more famous ArtsJournal blogger Terry Teachout posted a fantastic list of ways to get him to review your plays on his blog About Last Night. I love this, because it rewards his regular blog readers; they now have a distinct advantage over press people/playwrights who only read his Wall Street Journal column. As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I think it’s extremely important for publicists to do as much research on journalists as we expect them to do on our clients, or, if an artist/company is pitching themselves, on their organizations. What do writers cover? What are their interests? Likes/dislikes? Where are they from? Do they have a blog? What other publications do they write for? Why is your client a good fit for them? I suppose on very rare occassions the spaghetti/wall/general-press-release-to-the-masses approach works, but in my experience, a little Google work goes a long way.
Here are some of the highlights from Teachout’s list. It’s amazing that he gets so specific. Like when I was looking at colleges and after my Brown University information session the admissions officer goes, “Is anyone here from North Dakota? If you are, please come see us after your tour. We don’t currently have any students from North Dakota at Brown.” My mom was like, should we move? Maybe your father could move…
Anyway, selections from the Teachout instructions:
• I have no geographical prejudices. On the contrary,
I love to range far afield, particularly to states that I haven’t yet
gotten around to visiting in my capacity as America’s drama critic.
Right now Colorado and Texas loom largest, but if you’re doing
something exciting in (say) Mississippi or Montana, I’d be more than
happy to add you to the list as well.• Repertory is everything. I won’t visit an
out-of-town company that I’ve never seen to review a play by an author
of whom I’ve never heard. What I look for is an imaginative mix of
revivals of major plays–including comedies–and newer works by living
playwrights and songwriters whose work I’ve admired. Some names on the
latter list: Alan Ayckbourn, Brooke Berman, Nilo Cruz, Liz Flahive,
Brian Friel, Athol Fugard, Adam Guettel, A.R. Gurney, David Ives,
Michael John LaChiusa, Kenneth Lonergan, Lisa Loomer, David Mamet,
Martin McDonagh, Conor McPherson, Itamar Moses, Lynn Nottage, Stephen
Sondheim, and Tom Stoppard.I also have a select list of older shows I’d like to review that
haven’t been revived in New York lately (or ever). If you’re doing The Beauty Part, The Cocktail Party, The Entertainer, Hotel Paradiso, The Iceman Cometh, Loot, Man and Superman, On the Town, Rhinoceros, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Visit
(the play, not the musical), or anything by Jean Anouilh, S.N. Behrman,
William Inge, Terence Rattigan, or John Van Druten, kindly drop me a
line.…
• Web sites matter–a lot. A clean-looking home page that
conveys a maximum of information with a minimum of clutter tells me
that you know what you’re doing, thus increasing the likelihood that
I’ll come see you. An unprofessional-looking, illogically organized
home page suggests the opposite. (If you can’t spell, hire a
proofreader.) This doesn’t mean I won’t consider reviewing you–I know
appearances can be deceiving–but bad design is a needless obstacle to
your being taken seriously by other online visitors.…
• Mention this posting. I’ve come to see shows solely
because publicists who read my blog wrote to tell me that their
companies were doing a specific show that they had good reason to think
might interest me. Go thou and do likewise.