[NEohioPAL] a thought on publicity

[Robert Hawkes]

I note with some curiosity a tendency to encourage attendance at a play by
informing the potential audience that Famous Person X was (or even will be)
in the play in New York/London/etc., or that Famous Person Y directed it
ditto. The logic escapes me - because there is none: Famous Persons X and Y
are not coming to Cleveland to do the show. Logic is not the point: this
strategy is obviously aimed at pushing the audience's Name Recognition
button in cases in which the title of the play may not do so. Fair enough,
I guess, but it also encourages the whole willingness to lick the boots of
celebrity and award-winning - a willingness we are healthier without, as a
theatre community.

We'll want to go to Cleveland Shakespeare Festival's *As You Like It* because
Kevin Kline is in the Kenneth Branagh film of the play. We might even trek
to Akron to see Ohio Shakespeare Festival's *The Merchant of Venice* because
John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, and Anthony Sher have played Shylock
elsewhere, as has Al Pacino, and he's a Movie Star! An
Academy-Award-Winning Movie Star! Wait! So's Kevin Kline!

It's so silly.

Just a thought.

respectfully

Robert Hawkes
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20120615/17e0cdf1/attachment-0004.htm>