A Protest

Jackie Schultz at the R Street Theatre is planning a march to the Sacramento Bee at 3 p.m. on Friday, August 18th, to protest several interrelated issues concerning what sometimes feels like the tyrannical dominance of the Sacramento Bee over reviews and other information regarding Sacramento theater. One bad or middling SacBee review is sometimes enough to single-handedly torpedo a struggling community theater's finances and future outlook.

I certainly empathize with her protest, but feel that the effort is misdirected to some degree. Especially in the era of the Web Log, there are channels to answer back to particularly egregious reviews. As an example, in 2001, many DMTC aficionados answered back to a Davis Enterprise 'West Side Story' review with a letter-writing campaign. In that case, it appeared the reviewer had seriously misconstrued the purpose of the 'Romeo and Juliet'-derived story, and some response was called for. It is also important, however, not to curtail the reviewer's freedom to make judgements, whether fair or foul.

Another issue is the Sacramento Bee's general neglect of the community theater scene. The Sacramento Bee is not alone in this regard: despite their own hoopla, the Sacramento News and Review also neglects the local scene. In fact, if a newspaper is run for profit, it will almost be bound to neglect the local scene. The reasons are many. The Sacramento Bee is THE major newspaper for record, not only for Sacramento, but for all northern California. They are bound to first cover a wide variety of professional venues - Sacramento, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Reno, Clear Lake, etc., because these venues pay - a lot! - for advertising and other services. Unfortunately, community theater falls second. Community theaters like DMTC are often neglected even more, because they are outside the Sacramento city limits, but over the years, DMTC has been able to build up a loyal audience that will attend shows no matter how rabid a theater reviewer might get, thus giving DMTC some immunity. Would that all community theaters were so lucky!

I'm not sure everyone is aware just how rapidly the theater community has expanded in Sacramento in just the last ten years, nor how few reviewers the Bee has on its staff (fewer than ten years ago). Every year, when I attend the Elly Awards ceremony, I'm always dumbstruck by the vast number of people I've never heard of before. All actors are united on the proposition that the world needs to pay more attention to the groups to which they belong, but no daily newspaper could possibly keep up with every theater group in Sacramento short of perilous overstaffing. That's why I say, thank goodness for blogs!

It may be that there is a shakeout of the theater scene underway in Sacramento. Last year, when attending 'Nunsense' at Woodland Opera House, I overheard one couple talking about their plans to create a new community theater in the Natomas area, and all I could think was "NOOOO! There are many community theatres here already, and at some point, the audience pool won't be able to keep up!"

These sentiments aside, consider protesting anyway. Nothing like a squeaky wheel to get the grease. Maybe I'll go down and take some photos. But it has got to be a friendly protest, because Sacramento Bee is not our enemy in any regard - they are probably doing what they can within their means.

Here is the Call To Protest:

Dear theatre supporters, friends and associates,

The Studio Theatre is in trouble and our doors will be closed by the end of this month. A one-two punch delivered by the Sacramento Bee's theatre critic is going to shut us down.... I will not go quietly and I am asking all of you to help me. If you can march with us to the Sacramento Bee this Friday afternoon at 3pm, that would be great. If not, please send out the information below to your audiences. They can help support this grass-roots effort by email, letter or in person....

We will be meeting at The Studio Theatre, 1028 R Street this Friday, Aug 18th at 3pm and walk 10 blocks down Q Street to the corner of 21st and Q. Signs with support for local theatre (your company!!) and seeaplay.com are welcomed. Additional suggestions and ideas are also welcomed.

Let's seize this opportunity to make some noise!

We are asking the Bee to consider the following:

1. Theatre in the Sacramento region is suffering dramatically. Audience attendance is down across the board by at least 40 to 50% and in some cases, even more. If we want to see small companies survive this dramatic downturn in business during these difficult times, perhaps it is time for a more active ongoing partnership and line of communication with the Sacramento Bee. The Sacramento Bee has practically a monopoly in town and currently there is one critic, one voice in a one paper town. This should not continue.

2. The Sacramento Bee can provide much needed support for The League of Sacramento Theatres, the non-profit organization that represents over 40 professional and non-professional theatres in the region by supporting www.seeaplay.com.

3. October 2006 will be "theatre month". Support http://seeaplay.com/productionsNowPlaying.htm, where audiences can go and express their opinion about the plays they see. The League has a grant from SMAC for an outdoor campaign for seeaplay.com and we need support from the Bee!

4. The online Bee online, Sacbee.com and SacTicket.com might help arts organizations have a greater voice. Make the 21Q a blog that could be available to us, "voices from the trenches". 21Q is a blog that is currently a one-way stream (go to www.sacticket.com). How about considering edited response so it becomes a dialogue. This is especially critical at this time, since the Bee staffing in the arts is so limited.

5. Help save The Studio Theatre. We have brought life, love and laughter to the community for the last 12 years, sometimes with only a wing and a prayer to keep us afloat. We will be closed by Aug 31st if we cannot rally support and fill the seats in the theatre.

This march will be covered by TV, radio and the news media alike. We can seize this opportunity and make some NOISE!!! I will not go down quietly! I am speaking for theatre, because that is who I am. The other visual and performing arts are all suffering, but it is up to them to rally support should they choose to join us.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Jackie Schultz
Producer
The Studio Theatre
1028 R Street, Sacramento CA 95814
http://www.thestudiotheatre.net/

The Studio Theatre produces contemporary works with a female perspective and a healthy dose of liberal humor.