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The New Playgoer's Club: the Emergent Theater Weblog Culture and the Practice of Theater Criticism

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The New Playgoer's Club: the Emergent Theater Weblog Culture and the Practice of Theater Criticism San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Master's Theses Master's Theses and Graduate Research Spring 2011 The New Playgoer's Club: The Emergent Theater Weblog Culture and the Practice of Theater Criticism Elizabeth Hunter Spreen San Jose State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses Recommended Citation Spreen, Elizabeth Hunter, "The New Playgoer's Club: The Emergent Theater Weblog Culture and the Practice of Theater Criticism" (2011). Master's Theses. 3955. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.3jtg-ebvy https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/3955 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses and Graduate Research at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE NEW PLAYGOER’S CLUB: THE EMERGENT THEATER WEBLOG CULTURE AND THE PRACTICE OF THEATER CRITICISM A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Television, Film, Radio and Theater San José State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Elizabeth Spreen May 2011 © 2011 Elizabeth Spreen ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Designated Thesis Committee Approves the Thesis Titled THE NEW PLAYGOER’S CLUB: THE EMERGENT THEATER WEBLOG CULTURE THE PRACTICE OF THEATER CRITICISM by Elizabeth Spreen APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF TELEVISION, FILM, RADIO, AND THEATER SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY May 2011 Dr. David Kahn Department of Television, Film, Radio and Theater Dr. Allison McKee Department of Television, Film, Radio and Theater Dr. Ethel Walker Department of Television, Film, Radio and Theater ABSTRACT THE NEW PLAYGOER’S CLUB: THE EMERGENT THEATER WEBLOG CULTURE AND THE PRACTICE OF THEATER CRITICISM by Elizabeth Spreen New York City has one of the most active and engaged theater blogging communities in the country. It is common practice for theater bloggers to supplement and comment on the journalistic and critical practices of the New York Times, Time Out, New York, and The Village Voice, but the idea of a theater blogosphere is still a relatively new phenomenon. The emerging role of blogger-critics and their critical practice is largely uncharted and far from understood. While sharing some of the same tasks as the journalist-critic, blogger-critics are still defining and identifying the scope of their practice and, in some cases, forging an identity that is separate from that of mainstream journalist-critics. This study examines a series of events called Blogger’s Nights and documents the factors that shaped the critical function of the reviews that resulted from these community events. Taking a case study approach, this study aims to establish a baseline of information about the practice of blogger-criticism and to identify how critical tasks are shaped by the boundaries of the medium and the expectations of the community that surrounds the blogger-critics. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. David Kahn, for his invaluable advice and guidance during the entirety of my research and writing process. Dr. Allison McKee offered critical guidance in shaping the first chapter, thus helping to move the research forward when it had run aground. I am also grateful to Dr. Ethel Walker for her encouragement and insightful comments in the last phase of the writing process. This thesis represents many hours of research, organizing and writing. I am deeply grateful for my family’s love and support while I worked to complete it. I would also like to thank Susannah Martin and Torbin Bullock for their enthusiastic encouragement and belief in the project. Finally, thank you to Novita Hambali for handling the day to day life maintenance issues and for caring for my kids while I was in the thick of it. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction...................................................................................................1 Statement of the Question............................................................................................................13 Terminology...................................................................................................................................17 Methodology ..................................................................................................................................25 Bloggers Nights: Structure and Intention....................................................................................26 Chapter 2: Presentation and Construction of the Blogger-Critic’s Identity ....................30 Analysis: Pig Farm .........................................................................................................................31 Analysis: The Internationalist .....................................................................................................43 Analysis: Dying City......................................................................................................................53 Chapter 3: Free Tickets and the Role of Blogger-Critics ...............................................57 Analysis: Dying City......................................................................................................................58 Analysis: Essential Self-Defense ..................................................................................................65 Chapter 4: Standards and Practices and the Expression of Critical Function..................77 Analysis: 100 Saints You Should Know ......................................................................................78 Chapter 5: Conclusions.................................................................................................95 Areas for Future Research.......................................................................................................... 111 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................114 vi Chapter 1: Introduction The use of weblogs or blogs as a medium for thinking and writing about theater provides a provocative context in which to examine how the function of theater criticism may be shaped by the medium for which it is written. Theater criticism became web- based in the late 1990s when major newspapers like the New York Times began offering expanded arts sections online that included reviews and comprehensive listings of theater, movies and other cultural events (Goldstein 124). When newspapers made this transition, it was assumed that critics would continue to serve the same gate-keeping function they had historically, determining the value of cultural products by enforcing critical standards while educating and informing the public about theater arts activity. This gate-keeping function is the core feature of the New York Times arts section and central to the value of the newspaper itself (Stein 113). While the critical force of the Times has not been supplanted, the 2005 New York Times Company Annual Stock-holders Report identified non-traditional media as a risk factor in maintaining the “traditional media model in which quality journalism has been primarily supported by print advertising revenues” (12 2005). Indeed, competition from portal sites, such as Yahoo.com, that were able to generate a larger audience for listings led to a decrease in advertising dollars and eventually forced the Times to scale back its online arts coverage to present levels. It should come as no surprise that the Times Annual Stockholders Report from 2007 also notes that the newspaper industry as a whole has experienced an increase in “competition from new media formats and sources other than traditional newspapers (often free to 1 users)” along with a shift among “some consumers to receive all or a portion of their news other than from a newspaper” (10 2007). The popularity of websites like nytheatre.com, offoffonline.com, Theater Scene.net, and TheaterMania.com, demonstrates a growing trend among audiences and theater artists to go outside mainstream media sources for information about theatrical activity (Goldstein 124). In 2008, Mark Denton’s nytheater.com claimed 3.4 million unique visitors (Jacobs 2009) and boasted a core readership of “several hundred thousand people who appreciate the fact his site reviews virtually every show in town — even those in small, out-of-the-way venues” (Jacobs 2009). Finally, the use of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and online message boards and listservs indicates that theatergoers no longer rely upon “authoritative voices for either listings or reviews” (Goldstein 125). Blogs featuring theater criticism reflect this populist trend. One of the earliest arts blogs to feature theater criticism is About Last Night, launched by Terry Teachout, theater critic for The Washington Post. About Last Night is one of several blogs that make up ArtsJournal, an online digest of arts and cultural journalism that has included blogs on the site since 2003. Teachout estimates that at the time he launched About Last Night, there were “fewer than a dozen” blogs dealing with arts or culture and “none written by a critic from the mainstream media” (“Culture”). Now, many mainstream critics maintain a blog including James Wolcott writing for Esquire, theater critics Lyn Gardiner and Michael Billington for guardian.co.uk. Additionally, critics maintaining personal blogs include New Yorker music critic, Alex Ross, whose
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