Theatre Blog Awards? A Winning Idea!
Theatre Blog Awards? A Winning Idea!
If you've ever perused through my list of daily blog reads, you'll note that The Wall Street Journal's Terry Teachout is among them via his outstanding About Last Night blog. Today, in noting the winners of this year's New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, he raises a provoking observation and proposition.
He observes that members of said circle are all "connected in some way or other with the print media" to the exclusion of Web-based writers. As such, he proposes that theatre bloggers organize in some meaningful fashion to eventually bestow its own honors on the theatre community.
Excellent idea, Terry! Please count me in!
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: About Last Night, Awards, Blogs, Broadway, Musical, Play, Terry Teachout
posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Tuesday, May 08, 2007
4 Comments:
It does seem like a logical next step, and certainly blogs and podcasts have become an important part of the cultural debate in other areas, such as film and literature.
To give one example, I listen to a weekly movie review podcast based in Chicago called Filmspotting. The two people who started it were simply film buffs, who maybe had a little bit of background in terms of college courses, but weren't connected to the industry. Now, their podcast airs once a month on public radio in Chicago, they're members of the Chicago film critics society, they routinely interview actors and directors, they've reported from Sundance. Their show is very professionally done. They're knowledgable, they do a lot of research. They obviously put a lot of thought into what they're going to say, and I rely on their reviews as much as I do the reviews from traditional print or broadcast media.
I think your site and others do the same thing. They're increasingly a trusted resource for people from all over the world to find reviews and news about the theater. And it's important to recognize that they are shaping a role in critical opinion, in helping theatergoers decide what they want to see.
Of course, the biggest difference is that we're all doing this because of our passion for theatre. No one is paying us.
Good point!
I like the idea also - It would be much more like a "people's Choice" from avid fans versus the whole industry pat-on-the back that some awards tend towards.
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