September 28, 2000
NewsWireÉ
Starting this week, L.A. theatregoers have a new publication to
keep them informedÑand L.A. theatres, big to small, will have a new venue for
feature coverage. Called L.A. Stage, the glossy publication will begin
modestly as a quarterly until it can gather momentum from subscribers and
advertisers to go monthly.
Bringing L.A. Stage to the page are some familiar faces
to L.A. theatre: editor Lee Melville, former editor of Drama-Logue, and Theatre
LA, the membership organization which, under the leadership of longtime theatre
producer and booster Lars Hansen, has stepped up its efforts to market the
assets of L.A. theatre to Southland audiences and potential audiences.
"It's a focused, niche sort of publicationÑa consumer
magazine for theatregoers," said Hansen. Indeed, the first issue will go
out free to a targeted list of 5,000, culled from Theatre LA member theatres.
"The names we have are all people who've bought tickets four or five times
in the last year," said Hansen. The subscription price after the first
free issue will be $35 a year.
Advertising is the other pillar of support for the magazine, which
is going ahead minus any capital. Theatre LA's staff is helping to put it out,
and the publisher of Performing Arts, the glossy program magazine, is
giving L.A. Stage a generous cost-only deal for its printing. "We're starting
with a lot of wonderful, dedicated help and support from the initial
advertisers," said Hansen. "If they and the readers think it's of
value, it will grow."
L.A. Stage's mission, editor Melville explained, is
"three-pronged. The first is to reach the subscribers of the major
theatres, see if they'll subscribe to other theatres. The second is to reach
occasional theatregoers and see if they'll go more often, maybe even subscribe,
or go to smaller theatres like the Actors' Gang or the Colony. And the third is
to reach those who never go to the theatreÑto find out why they don't go and
what would interest them. That group will be the hardest to reach,"
Melville admitted.
Despite its consumer focus, it will not include reviewsÑat least
in part due to the long lead-time logistics of a monthly publication. In their
place will be features focused not only theatre companies but on nightlife
options for theatregoers, opening night coverage, and the thoughts of
theatregoers themselves.
"We want to have an article from the viewpoint of the
theatregoer every monthÑfrom a person who's not an actor or a theatre person,
who just goes to the theatre," said Melville. For his part, since leaving Drama-Logue in early
1991, Melville continued attending the theatre faithfully, most recently as a
voter for Theatre LA's Ovation awards. His new post at L.A. Stage will give him
the best of both worlds: Now he can cover the shows he sees, though not with
reviews.
"It's great to be getting back into publishing," said
Melville. "It's reinvigorated me. My friends have noticed a change."
We're banking that L.A. theatre will notice a change, as well.