ShowBizRadio

Listen to Mike and Laura discuss the third year of ShowBizRadio [MP3 2:25 2.2MB].

Mike: This is the ShowBizRadio Podcast for August 26, 2008. This is Mike.

Laura: And this is Laura. ShowBizRadio.net is three years old. What has happened over the past year? We still love theater. The variety of productions, ranging from simple entertainment to more challenging messages. We’re very lucky to be involved in such a strong, dedicated community of people.

Mike: The ShowBizRadio.net website over the past year has had 224,000 pages viewed by nearly 100,000 visitors. Our opinions have occasionally struck a chord with theater companies and audiences. Several times this year reviews on ShowBizRadio.net have elicited a strong response from people. Some of these responses turned into personal attacks on ShowBizRadio staff, instead of constructive comments on the review itself. As Kris Vire of Storefront Rebellion (a theater blogger in Chicago) said:

I know that even when I write a bad review it’s because I love theater and I want it to succeed. If I point out the flaws in a playwright’s work, or a director’s or actor’s or designer’s, it’s usually in the hopes that they’ll do better next time. And most of us critics are in fact in this because we like what we do, and we like what we cover.

Mike: In one case, we had to disable allowing new comments to be posted on the ShowBizRadio site, which resulted in an email sent to us:

Do we live in a communist country? Why did you close comments!? That hardly seems fair. What happened to the Freedom of Speech?

Mike: You have freedom of speech, feel free to set up your own web site and tell the world what you think of our reviews. But we’re not going to provide you the place to insult or threaten us or our staff.

Laura: As Dominic P. Papatola, theater critic for the Twin Cities Pioneer Press said:

If that means people who do what I do come off as not so nice every once in a while, well, so be it.

Mike: We know we won’t please all the actors and artistic and production staff of every show we review. And yes, we’ve made a few serious mistakes along the way. But hopefully ShowBizRadio.net has been an asset to the DC region theater community. We’re planning to continue growing the site over the next year with new resources. If you have ideas, questions or concerns, we’re always willing to talk. Simply leave a comment here on the website or send us an email.

Laura: And now, on with the show.