{"id":314,"date":"2009-08-14T11:23:45","date_gmt":"2009-08-14T11:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=314"},"modified":"2009-08-14T11:23:45","modified_gmt":"2009-08-14T11:23:45","slug":"talk_to_me_about_theater_blogg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2009\/08\/talk_to_me_about_theater_blogg\/","title":{"rendered":"Talk to me about theater blogging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Friday! It’s not raining and I actually have an interview to post!  This week we have Jaime Green, Literary Associate at MCC Theater in Manhattan and blogger of 5 years. Below she discusses why she started blogging, while she’ll keep blogging, and whether or not There Will Be\/Should Be Blood in the theater blogosphere<\/b>. Err…”theatrosphere<\/b>“. Additionally, this marks the first mention of lolcats on this blog. <\/p>\n

<\/b>
\"Jaime-Green.jpg\"<\/span>Jaime Green is a freelance theatre producer and dramaturg, as well as Literary Associate at MCC Theater.  She is Artistic Director of Temporary Theatre Company which, true to its name, is now in hibernation.  She often considers leaving theatre to teach\/garden\/become a nutritionist\/have a podcast\/hide under the covers, but it hasn’t happened yet.  In addition to her blog, Surplus<\/a>, she has written for Cheap Healthy Good<\/a> and Program Notes<\/a>, the blog of the National Performing Arts Convention.  She is a contributing writer to Spezzatino<\/a>, and would sell a kidney to write for The Awl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/i>
When and why did you start writing a blog?<\/b><\/p>\n

I started writing a blog before they were even called blogs (at least that I know of).  In college some folks had “web journals,” and I started one of my own, which I told no one about.  I spent more time teaching myself html and perfecting the layout that writing, but I did post one rather fine story about finding a spider in my dorm room.<\/p>\n

I started Surplus<\/i> in August of 2004.  I’d started reading some blogs in college, and this was the summer after graduation.  I was probably feeling the lack of writing and creativity in my desk-job life, but the conscious reason is in the title – I had (have) a lot of extra (“surplus” – aha!) stuff knocking around my head: daily anecdotes, thoughts, opinions on just about everything.  My friends were probably starting to get sick of it, and there was a free blog platform, and I suffer from the delusion that what I have to say is interesting.  <\/p>\n


Who did you expect to read it? <\/b><\/p>\n

I didn’t really think about that at first, but I was hoping for a similar wide-ranging readership as the blogs that I read – personal blogs (oddly often parents’) that were entertaining and engaging, little windows into people’s lives.  The stuff that gives blogging its narcissistic bad name, but what actually makes it, to me, something special.  So, basically, I was hoping it would be read by strangers.  Millions and millions of strangers who were fascinated to read about this fake engagement ring<\/a> I accidentally acquired.<\/p>\n

Who ended up reading it? <\/b><\/p>\n

Well, some strangers, but I’ve yet to break the millions-and-millions mark. Some friends, though not all of them.  Some people I know through the theatre world, which is always at once cool and totally terrifying.  The time an actor I know through work introduced me to someone as a blogger.  That was scary.  But also, “Wow, she reads my blog?”  My sister reads it, but I don’t think my mother does.<\/p>\n


\nWould it be correct to say that theater in New York City is the
\nthing you cover most? There’s a lot about vegetarian cooking and books
\nas well, but would you still call Surplus<\/i> a “theater blog”?
\nWhat do you think is the value of having a blog about your life that
\ncovers theater versus a blog that exists solely to review theater? Do
\nyou think one approach is more or less valuable to the greater “theater
\ncommunity”?<\/b><\/p>\n

There was a span a couple of years ago, around
\n2007, when theatre was definitely the focus of my blog.  It all
\nhappened accidentally – I started this blog to just vomit my thoughts
\nonto the internet, but since I love theatre, and see a lot of it and
\nthink about it a lot, much of my writing happened to be about theatre. 
\nAnd then in maybe 2006 or so, there was this sort of coalescing of a
\ntheatre blog community.<\/p>\n

To back up for a second, the way that I,
\nand I think this is true for many people, ended up getting any
\nstrangers to read my blog was basically through commenting on their
\nsites (not just for this nefarious purpose, of course), and then, once
\nin a while, they’d follow my comment back to my blog and be like, “Oh,
\nneat, this is something I’ll read.”  Or if I link to someone’s site and
\nthey see in their statcounter that my site linked to theirs.  I’ve
\nfound blogs to read myself the same way.  But so there’s that way that
\ncommenting opens up blog networks.<\/p>\n

So a few years ago, at least that’s when I started discovering theatre blogs.  Before that I’d been reading about toddlers<\/a> and, like, Gawker<\/a>. 
\nAnd the theatre blog “community” started forming somehow, and I got
\nswept up in that.  I never thought of my blog as a theatre blog, but I
\nwrote about a lot of theatre, maybe 60% of my content (I really have no
\nidea), and I certainly wasn’t going to be like, “No, keep me out of
\nyour bloggy community. Take your link traffic and referrals and
\ncamaraderie elsewhere!”  <\/p>\n

And also, these people were cool, and
\nI am a sucker for a group that wants me to be – assumes I am – a part
\nof it.  I liked the things I was reading through this web.<\/p>\n

But
\nthat doesn’t answer your question so much.  Let’s see, would I consider
\nmy blog a theatre blog.  No, not any more than, in 2007 and 2008, after
\nmy workplace discovered (quite kindly) my blog, I would’ve considered
\nit a lolcats blog.  (More on that transition in a moment.)  It’s always
\nbeen my personal blog, a repository for my thoughts and opinions and
\nstories.<\/p>\n

I think that format has actually sometimes slowed down
\nmy blog’s growth – other theatre bloggers take their sites waaay more
\nseriously, see it as a journalistic responsibility.  Since Surplus has
\nalways been an outlet for me, I never felt beholden to my readership,
\nworking on a sort of “They’ll find me” thing, which doesn’t always
\nwork.  I write about a lot of theatre for non-theatre people, and then
\nI’ll not write about theatre for a month if I’m not seeing any, and the
\nblogging about cats and farmers markets can turn the theatre people
\noff.  <\/p>\n

But as much as the more hardcore theatre blogs (and the
\nones more fully committed to the “theatre blog community” and its…
\nissues) have found greater readership, Surplus still feels right for
\nme.  It exists because I need a place to post the latest Where the Wild Things Are<\/i><\/a> trailer and share my thoughts, or to report on the Port Authority greenmarket<\/a>,
\nbecause if I emailed my friends with every thing like that, they would
\ndisown me.  And there are some people out there who like reading my
\nwide-ranging sharings, and I love them for it.<\/p>\n

When was
\nthe first time a theater company offered you press tickets to their
\nshow? Or was it the other way around; did you contact a theater company
\nand offer to review their production on the blog?  Can you pinpoint any
\nparticular entry that may have gotten press peoples’ attention?<\/b><\/p>\n

I’m pretty sure the first time was Roundabout’s production of Pig Farm<\/i>,
\nin the summer of 2006.  At least, that’s the first I remember.  Theatre
\nbloggers had started getting some invites – I know my friend Isaac, at Parabasis<\/i><\/a>, had gotten one for The Wedding Singer<\/i>,
\nand I was mad jealous.  (I don’t remember if Isaac and I were friends
\nyet at this point, or just blog-friends.)  I think producers were
\nstarting to notice that the theatre blogs existed, and they were
\nassuming that people read us.  And Pig Farm <\/i>had gotten a really rough review in the Times<\/i>. 
\nSo they organized – and this was the first of these I heard about – a
\nBloggers’ Night, where they’d invite us all on one night.  Before that
\nI think producers were writing to folks individually with ticket
\noffers.  I wasn’t able to go to the Pig Farm<\/i> night, but they weren’t the last people to offer tickets.<\/p>\n

I
\ndon’t think I’ve ever approached a theatre for tickets – I’m not a
\njournalist, and I’m not a professional reviewer.  But I am a sucker for
\nfree theatre tickets, so I often accept offers.  (Especially when
\nthey’re for things I wanted to see.)  Oftentimes blogger invitations
\nwill be extended with a “we’d love for you to write about the show
\nafter seeing it” attitude, which is great, because it exempts you from
\na negative write-up if you don’t want to say bad things.  You’re given
\nspace to just not say anything.<\/p>\n

Looking back at my June 2006
\narchives, I don’t think there was a particular watershed moment.  I’m
\nwriting about: theatre, tv, books, Stephen Colbert, science, An Inconvenient Truth<\/i>
\n– I think I just blogged about enough theatre that it tipped the
\nscales, and, maybe more importantly, other theatre blogs were starting
\nto refer to Surplus <\/i>as a theatre blog, so I had that street cred, or pedigree.<\/p>\n

 
You currently have a day job, as the Literary Associate at MCC<\/a>,
\nan off-Broadway theater in Manhattan. Did you ask your employers before
\nstarting the blog? Do they know you have a blog? Has it ever been a
\nproblem? It seems your attitude is that it’s your blog, you can promote
\nyour theater if you want to, but have you ever been accused of having a
\nconflict of interest by readers or colleagues? Do most theater bloggers
\nhave day jobs in the industry but not as journalists? <\/p>\n

<\/b>I
\nstarted my blog before coming to work at MCC, as something separate
\nfrom my job.  An escape from it, in fact.  And I continued in that vein
\nat MCC.  In 2006 or 2007, when the theatre blogs were really taking
\noff, David Cote from Time Out<\/i><\/a>,
\nwas moderating a panel about theatre blogs, and invited me to take
\npart.  Until that time, I was blogging semi-anonymously – I used my
\nfirst name only, and didn’t write about work at all.  In order to take
\npart in the panel, I knew I’d need to break that, and I consulted with
\none of my bosses.  (He happened to be the one who would know what a
\nblog is.)  So I told him I had a blog, and about the opportunity to be
\non the panel, and in talking about it I decided I didn’t want to do the
\npanel.  But so then that one boss knew.<\/p>\n

Then, in 2007, Time Out <\/i>included in its spring theatre preview a list of theatre blogs to bookmark<\/a>,
\nand I was on that list (on the web and in print, thank you).  And this
\nboss from before announced it, congratulatorily, at a staff meeting.
\nThat was a turning point for me, in what I felt comfortable writing –
\none day I blogged something about new play development, I think, with
\nsomething about how I wished all artistic directors would read the
\nthing I was linking to, and this boss called me and was like, “Is there
\nsomething you want to tell me?”  (Me: “No! I meant in general!”)  But
\nas much as work knowing about it – and I have a strict
\nno-work-on-the-blog rule, which I only sometimes break, despite one of
\nmy other bosses asking why I haven’t promoted MCC’s shows – it’s also
\nbeen the theatre world in general.  The times actors I know and work
\nwith have told me they’ve read my blog.  Or the time I wrote about a director having nice hair<\/a>,
\nand his fiancee commenting.  (She and I have since become friends.  And
\nhe does, I’ll say it – Kip Fagan has awesome hair.  Do your worst,
\nHeidi.)  <\/p>\n

Knowing that the people I’m writing about may very well read my writing, well, first it put me into a lolcat<\/a>
\nphase.  I wrote about theatre much less in the year or so after I got
\nde-anonymized.  And coming out of that, I’ve become much less inclined
\nto write anything negative about a show I’ve seen.  I’ll still
\noccasionally take an organization to task, but– I think James Urbaniak
\n(brilliant actor and livejournaler)<\/a> put it this way: I won’t write anything I wouldn’t say at a party after two drinks.   <\/p>\n

Do you consider yourself a journalist?<\/b> <\/p>\n

No. Definitely not.  Nothing I write is formal enough or professional enough for that.  I mean, I’ve written entire posts in lolcats<\/a>.  But I am a writer, of whatever sort.  The lolcat thing is actually one of my favorite posts.  (Eep.)<\/p>\n

What was even up with that David Cote Time Out New York <\/i>wish list<\/a>?
\nI love the tagline, by the way: “TONY’s Theater editor plans the
\nfuture. By David Cote “. The Future! Has been planned! Fantastic!
\nAnywho, as you I’m sure know, one of his wishes was the following:<\/b><\/p>\n

5. Bloggers: Engage\/enrage
This
\nitem will generate noise (and that’s the point): I wish bloggers would
\nmix it up more. Does it take a Rachel Corrie fiasco to generate heat?
\nThe theater blogosphere has been dull, insular and quiet lately. We
\nneed more arguments, more dirt, more bloody knock-down-drag-out fights.
\nNot just self-promotion, obscure manifestos and production diaries. And
\nhere’s hoping for a new breed of long-form critics worth reading.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do
\nyou agree or disagree that the theater blogosphere is 1. Dull 2.
\nInsular and 3. Quiet Lately? What are these bloody knock-down-drag-out
\nfights he wants? Should blogs be bloody for the sake of being bloody? His own blog<\/a>
\nnever struck me as being especially “bloody”…is it?  Is he basically
\nsaying everyone just supports and promotes and comments on their
\nfriends? Do they?<\/p>\n

<\/b>David Cote is amazing.  Mostly because he
\nloves stirring up shit like this.  I love it.  He’s the only reviewer I
\nknow of in the city, especially at an organization of solid size and
\nstanding, who challenges theatres and producers to kick more ass.<\/p>\n

But
\ndid the blogosphere need this kick in the ass?  I don’t know.  It’s
\ntricky because almost every theatre blogger is also a theatre
\nprofessional, or an aspiring one, and only a very few people write
\nanonymously.  (And yes, our theatre blogs sometimes get us work.) But
\nsince we’re using our real names, putting ourselves out there like
\nthis, we can’t go about trashing other people.  Also, it’s just not
\nnice.  <\/p>\n

So is the theatrosphere (I hate that word, but it’s
\nshorter to type… unless I follow it up with an explanatory
\nparenthetical, of course) dull?  Maybe a little.  But the answer to
\nthat isn’t more fights. It’s people breaking out of their writing ruts,
\nout of the insular feedback loop that sometimes gets started.  The last
\nthing I, personally, want to read about on a theatre blog is other
\ntheatre blogs.  I don’t mean in terms of “So-and-so has a really
\nawesome\/interesting\/stupid post,” I mean the theatrosphere drama. I do
\nnot care.  And it’s easy to get sucked into it, to give it a lot of
\nmeaning and power and importance, when, in reality, it does not exist
\noutside of this little world.<\/p>\n

There have been some great
\nfirestorm issues that ripped through the theatre blogs – the question
\nof new play development, and its evils, which always gets me going,
\nbecause I work in new play development, and it’s not evil, but most
\nbloggers are writers or directors or something, and I’m sort of on the
\nother side.  (Not that it’s me vs. them – just different
\nperspectives.)  The My Name is Rachel Corrie<\/i><\/a>
\nbrouhaha also got the blogs going.  More recently there was lots of
\ndrama about the female playwrights study, but that frustrated me
\nbecause the drama got going before the study came out, and was based on
\na lot of hearsay and really tenuous stuff.  <\/p>\n

And that’s a case
\nof blog bloodyness that’s actually really bad for everyone.  There’s
\nbad information, unnecessarily high emotions, and people freaking out
\nabout nothing.  <\/p>\n

The other question I put to David is: What’s
\nthe point?  Are Artistic Directors reading blogs?  Are producers?  Are
\nthey listening to us?  If not, it’s just bloggers getting bloggers
\nriled up.<\/p>\n

Do you have a response to this comment on The Cote List on the TONY website?<\/b><\/p>\n

Posted by Matthew Risch on Wed, Jul 22, at 06:14pm<\/p>\n

Eek!
\nTo want to give bloggers more power seems not only a frightening
\nprospect, but a downright dangerous one. I am an actor who has
\nadmittedly scoured the internet for bloggers’ “reviews” and “dirt” and
\nhave found them to be more often than not dangerous, cruel, irrational,
\nand from an uneducated POV! If anything the internet has just become a
\npool for everyone to vomit up their 2 cents in. God help us if some of
\nthese people become critics. Words are weapons and need to be handled
\nas such.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First of all, dude, don’t be a jerk.  “God help us if some of these people become critics.”  Have you read the freaking New York Times<\/i>? 
\nBut there’s also a huge range in what’s being written on the internet –
\nthere are dirt-slingers and rank amateurs, and there are people who
\ntake their writing very seriously. There is legitimate journalism and
\ncriticism and activism happening on blogs, and that deserves respect. 
\nThe internet’s egalitarianism is intense – I’m grateful for it,
\nbecause, hello, that is why I am here writing, but it means anyone can
\nhave a platform.  But it also means, and this is its beauty, that the
\nreader gets to decide what she takes in.  It’s the opposite of the Times<\/i>
\nbeing the “arbiters of taste.”  And it’s part of what I love about
\nblogs – I’ve gotten to know which bloggers share my taste, and so I
\ngive more weight to their reviews (theatrical or otherwise).  And then
\nthere are some blogs I don’t read, because I don’t like their content
\nor perspective.  You get to decide what you let into your brain.  And,
\nokay, maybe Perez Hilton disproves this theory, but I think, to quote
\nJP Morgan in Ragtime<\/i> [Note from Amanda: Nerd Alert.]<\/b>,
\nthe cream rises to the top.  Except I don’t mean it in the
\nsemi-eugenicsy way I think he meant it.  I just think that awesome
\nbloggers get noticed, and if they get some clout, it’s not the worst
\nthing in the world.<\/p>\n

But, as noted in the comments on that post,
\nbully to Matthew Risch for using his real name there.  Not every
\ncommenter was so brave. <\/p>\n

What has been your most positive feedback you’ve ever gotten on the blog or a blog entry?<\/p>\n

<\/b>Oh gosh… I think, well, this isn’t theatre-related, and it’s a bit convoluted, but– basically, my blogging (at Surplus<\/i> and my column at Cheap Healthy Good<\/i>, which I got by virtue of my Surplus<\/i> writing and, I think, some clever comments) got me started contributing to this Canadian food magazine, Spezzatino<\/i>. It’s run by the woman who also runs Stumptuous<\/i><\/a>, a weight lifting for women site that I adore, and which somewhat changed my life, at least in theory.  She had put a post on Stumptuous<\/i> saying that she was looking for contributors for Spezzatino<\/i>, and I answered, supplying my writing at Cheap Healthy Good<\/i>
\nas my portfolio. She asked me to write an article, and after that,
\nanother (which is due tomorrow, eep).  To have this woman, whose
\nwebsite I so love and respect, say that she loved my writing was a huge
\ncompliment.  <\/p>\n

In terms of Surplus, what’s really stuck with me
\nhas been the (rare, rare) times people have said a post was really
\nfunny.  What David Cote wrote about my blog in the Time Out<\/i>
\nblogs to bookmark article meant a lot to me, too.  (Again with the
\ntelling me I’m funny.)  And knowing that people read it.  Every time a
\nperson reads my blog, an angel gets its wings, the grinch’s heart grows
\ntwo sizes, etc.   <\/p>\n

Why do you think most people – who
\npresumably have jobs and lives, though some may actually not – take the
\ntime to write blogs? Given the option, would you want blogging to be
\nyour full-time job?<\/p>\n

<\/b>I think it’s different for different
\npeople.  But it’s usually a combination, in varying proportions, of
\nhaving something to say, thinking people will want to hear what you
\nhave to say, and loving writing.  I wrote all through college, and
\nthough my blog is less serious and less rigorous than any of that, it’s
\nstill an important creative outlet for me.  I think the blog style, the
\nsort of post-valley girl voice that’s evolved across the board, is
\nreally interesting.  There’s craft there, even if it’s harder to see –
\nthe timing of a well-placed “uh,” the judicious use of all-caps.
\nSeriously – just read Wonkette<\/i><\/a>. They’re brilliant writers.  And I appreciate that, and aspire to it.<\/p>\n

And
\noh my god yes would I ever!  When I first started blogging, I think I
\nsaw it as biding my time, spinning my wheels, until I got back into
\n“real writing.”  But it’s one of my favorite things to do, and it is
\ndefinitely real writing.  Just with some likes thrown in.  But if
\nyou’ve read David Foster Wallace, you know that that sort of tone can
\nbe legit.  I’m sure that in a full-time, pressurey situation, blogging
\nmight lose some of its appeal, but I would love to get to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Friday! It’s not raining and I actually have an interview to post!  This week we have Jaime Green, Literary Associate at MCC Theater in Manhattan and blogger of 5 years. Below she discusses why she started blogging, while she’ll keep blogging, and whether or not There Will Be\/Should Be Blood in the theater blogosphere. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-interviews","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}