[NEohioPAL]Write to the Plain Dealer about the Friday Section

[K Brown]

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List members,
 
There have been a few postings in recent days regarding the missing Theater and Audition sections of the new Friday Magazine.  I am adding my two cents here because I think that if we all take a moment to contact the PD, our voices will be heard.  
 
The other posters have given us all some ideas to get our letters started, in addition to posting copies of their own letters.  Below you will find my second letter to the Plain Dealer regarding the omission.  (The first was more of an angry rant on Friday after spending 20 frustrating minutes looking for the audition notices.  Not worth sharing!)
 
Please take the time to send your thoughts to letters at plaind.com 
 
To Whom it May Concern,
 
I am an actor and a longtime subscriber of your newspaper.  I am writing to express my outrage over the missing theater listings and audition section in the new Friday magazine.  
 
After days of trying, I cannot come up with a good reason for not showing a complete listing of the upcoming events in the theater community.  As you well know, Cleveland is a city that is rich in the arts.  We have the second largest performing arts center in the United States (Playhouse Square Center), the oldest regional theater in America (Cleveland Playhouse), and the oldest African American Theater in the US (Karamu).  All three of these institutions are alive and well and there are countless others that are making history in their own way.  
 
For those operations that can not afford to take out full or half page ads in the Arts & Life section, word about their shows have always gotten out by way of the listing in the Friday Magazine.  Long-time patrons & supporters could double-check the dates and times of upcoming performances.  Casual readers could browse the theater section and perhaps find  something of interest on the list.  So, with the new format, are these individuals who read your paper supposed to assume that theater is suddenly dead in our community?  I certainly hope not.  In this depressed economy, it is difficult enough to fill the many theaters in this city.  Let's not give our would-be patrons any excuses to stay at home.
 
None of the theaters and theater companies would exist without the actors that grace their stages.  The actors in this city find out about upcoming auditions and workshops from an internet performing arts list and from the brightly colored box that appeared in the latter half of the Friday Magazine.  The internet based performing arts list works out quite nicely for a person like me, who has access to and time to browse the internet all day long at my job and at home.  
 
There are people who do not have the time or patience to sift through the hundreds of list postings each week.  For those people, the yellow box in the theater section was a concise and reliable alternative.  There are people who do not have access to the internet on a consistent basis.  These people may be working actors who may not earn enough to own a computer or maintain an internet connection.  These people may also be children who obviously won't have computers of their own, but still have a desire to express themselves onstage.   How are these aspiring actors to find out about auditions or workshops?
 
Please put the "Things to Do: Theater" and "Auditions and Workshops" sections back in the Friday Magazine.  If space is an issue perhaps you could consider moving the "Renter's Marketplace" to either the Classified or Real Estate sections of the paper.  The theater community in this city will certainly suffer without support from our only newspaper.
 


		
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<DIV>List members,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There have been a few postings in recent days regarding the missing Theater and Audition sections of the new Friday Magazine.  I am adding my two cents here because I think that if we all take a moment to contact the PD, our voices will be heard.  </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The other posters have given us all some ideas to get our letters started, in addition to posting copies of their own letters.  Below you will find my second letter to the Plain Dealer regarding the omission.  (The first was more of an angry rant on Friday after spending 20 frustrating minutes looking for the audition notices.  Not worth sharing!)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Please take the time to send your thoughts to <A href="mailto:letters at plaind.com">letters at plaind.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000>To Whom it May Concern,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000>I am an actor and a longtime subscriber of your newspaper.  I am writing to express my outrage over the missing theater listings and audition section in the new Friday magazine.  </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000>After days of trying, I cannot come up with a good reason for not showing a complete listing of the upcoming events in the theater community.  As you well know, Cleveland is a city that is rich in the arts.  We have the second largest performing arts center in the United States (Playhouse Square Center), the oldest regional theater in America (Cleveland Playhouse), and the oldest African American Theater in the US (Karamu).  All three of these institutions are alive and well and there are countless others that are making history in their own way.  </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000>For those operations that can not afford to take out full or half page ads in the Arts & Life section, word about their shows have always gotten out by way of the listing in the Friday Magazine.  Long-time patrons & supporters could double-check the dates and times of upcoming performances.  Casual readers could browse the theater section and perhaps find  something of interest on the list.  So, with the new format, are these individuals who read your paper supposed to assume that theater is suddenly dead in our community?  I certainly hope not.  In this depressed economy, it is difficult enough to fill the many theaters in this city.  Let's not give our would-be patrons any excuses to stay at home.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000>None of the theaters and theater companies would exist without the actors that grace their stages.  The actors in this city find out about upcoming auditions and workshops from an internet performing arts list and from the brightly colored box that appeared in the latter half of the Friday Magazine.  The internet based performing arts list works out quite nicely for a person like me, who has access to and time to browse the internet all day long at my job and at home.  </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000>There are people who do not have the time or patience to sift through the hundreds of list postings each week.  For those people, the yellow box in the theater section was a concise and reliable alternative.  There are people who do not have access to the internet on a consistent basis.  These people may be working actors who may not earn enough to own a computer or maintain an internet connection.  These people may also be children who obviously won't have computers of their own, but still have a desire to express themselves onstage.   How are these aspiring actors to find out about auditions or workshops?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000>Please put the "Things to Do: Theater" and "Auditions and Workshops" sections back in the Friday Magazine.  If space is an issue perhaps you could consider moving the "Renter's Marketplace" to either the Classified or Real Estate sections of the paper.  The theater community in this city will certainly suffer without support from our only newspaper.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="times new roman" color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><p>
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