Re: RAT [bigcheap] LA Weekly Edgefest article

[Pwpny@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/30/2000 6:46:29 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
bottomsdream@linkline.com writes:

<< In 1999, the Weekly reviewed approximately 750 professional stage
 productions in L.A., reluctantly missing at least 20 percent of the
 legitimate candidates for review and choosing to disregard the many shows
 that had runs of less than two weeks. These stats alone render Los Angeles
 the busiest professional-theater center in the country. (Actors Equity says
 that New York City opened 653 professional productions that same year.) >>

Congrats on a successful festival and the fine media coverage!

Okay, now a little bit of the New Yorker smarting off here; I have a coupla 
thoughts.

*First, to be picky: using Equity to determine how many shows are done in NYC 
is ludicrous (it's gotta be FAR more than 653 in a year) - I don't think the 
Weekly was just including Equity shows in THEIR count. For one thing, Equity 
is not going to be considering any theatrical works at "performance art" 
venues (like PS122, The Kitchen, etc.), because they don't know how to 
classify them. And there are tons of other non-Equity offerings out there. 
Not to dis, in any way, the theatre scene in LA - it's definitely VIBRANT and 
BOOMING. And maybe there ARE more shows per year in LA than in NYC - I'm no 
expert on this. I just think the counting methods used here are apples and 
oranges (not that I'm asking for a manual recount...).

*Second, and more importantly: the Weekly only missed 20% or so of shows 
running 2 or more weeks in a year? Omigod! All the NYC publications combined 
probably miss more than 50% of the offerings in our town! I know theaters in 
all cities struggle with getting enough attention, but I am green with envy...

Hi, to all my LA friends!

xoxo
Catherine Porter
Peculiar Works Project, NYC