Welcome to the Working Week

When I arrived in New York a little over a year ago, I came looking for full-time work in editorial and/or publishing. That this is a theater capital, and that much of my writing has been about theater, was definitely a plus, and I've had a good run freelancing for any number of esteemed institutions.

Last week I was offered the job of online editor (official title pending) for Theatre Development Fund, the folks who bring you TKTS and other audience-access programs. If you go to that site you'll see there's not much there in the way of content—and that's what my job will be, to create original content for the site. It's an exciting opportunity to serve a venerable nonprofit with a mission to make theater more accessible to more people by supporting the audiences of today and helping to create the audiences of tomorrow.

Theater criticism will be a conflict with the new job, though, so this means for the time being that I'll be signing off as a critic. It's been an inspiring and edifying job with odd hours and scraping-by pay, and I know I'm going to miss the chance to consider, and reconsider, the work I see rather than simply letting it wash over me. That's a privilege, and a responsibility, I realize I've taken for granted. My body of work as a critic has been a valuable record for me of my own tastes and insights, and I can only hope it's been of some value to readers, as well.

Since my so-called blog has lately been little more than an aggregator of my published writing, I'm not sure what will become of the Wicked Stage as we know it. It will probably be a lot less wicked, for one. But I do look forward to being put to work supporting this art form more directly than I ever have before. Not having to sweat next month's rent, or health care, or withholding taxes, is also a relief.

As one of my high school teachers, a Jesuit priest, used to say with an encouraging wink: Onward and upward.

Letting Go

Reviews of two very different solo shows, Julia Sweeney's Letting Go of God and Daniel Beaty's Emergence-SEE!.

New iPod

Big life changes on the horizon—more on that soon–but in a kind of celebration I did the obvious thing: upgraded to one of those 80mb iPods that can play video (not like I'll use that) and hold almost all of my 25,000 tunes. The first 10 randomly selected tunes it graced me with this morning:

XTC, "The Mayor of Simpleton"
The Police, "Once Upon a Daydream"
Lyle Lovett, "Bears"
Tammy Wynette & George Jones, "Will You Travel Down This Road With Me"
Monty Python, "Argument Clinic"
Mose Allison, "Your Molecular Structure"
Shostakovich, Moderato from Violin Concerto No. 1
Django Reinhardt, "Minor Swing"
Debussy, Andantino from his String Quartet in G
Beethoven's Rondo in C. Op 51, played by Gerhard Meinl's Tuba Sextet

Machines have odd taste, don't they?

Mr. Cox, I Presume

Returning to a favorite subject for the LA Times here.

What Comes Naturally

My review of Kathleen Clark's Southern Comforts is here.

All at Sea

I so wanted to love the Dan Fogler vehicle Voyage of the Carcass. My mixed feelings are registered here.

Economy and History

Two reviews today: Of the New York premiere of Nickel and Dimed and of Tanya Barfield's Blue Door.