Media Baugh!: Episode 2
posted by on January 17 at 12:30 PM
John Longenbaugh’s column in the Seattle Weekly this week is about whether it is embarrassingly provincial or supportive of audiences to applaud sets before a single actor sets foot on stage. The column is boring. There is one minor error: the assertion this practice is “rare.” You haven’t been spending much time in Seattle theaters lately, have you, Mr. Longenbaugh?
That was a rhetorical question. Let’s go to the tape. Through my contacts at Washington Ensemble Theatre, I have obtained the voicemail message which constituted Mr. Longenbaugh’s first ever contact with WET.
Helloooo… This is John Longenbaugh calling the WET ensemble [sic]. I’m doing an article for the Seattle Weekly about the current state of Seattle theater, especially in light of the recent closure of the Empty Space. And, uh, I would like to talk to some of you because, uh, I haven’t seen any of your work—because I haven’t been seeing much theater at all in the last couple of years[….]
Kinda hard to draw sweeping conclusions about the behavior of Seattle audiences when you haven’t been seeing much of them, huh?
I also had the chance to talk to Lathrop Walker, one of three members of WET whom Longenbaugh interviewed for his initial feature, which ended up being unduly condescending to WET. (He apparently didn’t talk to Marya Sea Kaminski or Jennifer Zeyl—who, if you’ve been paying attention and look past the hype about democratic decision making, are two of the more powerful members in the ensemble, and certainly the most qualified to talk to the press.)
If you recall, I’d wondered in my initial reading of Longenbaugh’s feature:
Dude, did you even bother to ask WET, over drinks, if they’re trying to be the “next Empty Space”? Their ensemble model is nothing like Empty Space’s.
According to Walker, Longenbaugh did ask—over and over again, because he didn’t like the answer he was getting. And that answer, according to Walker, was “no.”
snark
Are you sure that's not Marya Sea Kaminski?
Yep, thanks for the correction. Incidentally, Kaminski has a solo show on at WET Thurs-Sat at 8 pm. Go, it's great.
oh, snap.
logenbaugh is probably reeling.
that's hilarious that you got the transcript of his voice message. true reporting, there it is! you dig and you dig and you dig. ;-)
Dig to what end?
Please...there are so many more importnat - and positive - things taking place in this city..and this world.
Why must we snipe at one another.
Stop the Hate!
Yawn.
Longenbaugh is a douche. We get it. We get it.
Let's move on.
En Garde -- AW and JL both started freely trading Flicks and Parries, yet it seems that JL is getting the worst of it as he would be Remise - ; ) - to admit.
Call JL's prior comments a False Attack full of Mal-Parries, AW's Baugh 1 an Invitation, and Baugh 2 an Extension.
If all goes well and ends well, they will be a proper final Salute, which might mean -- as a commenter suggested prior -- they will end up hottishly Corps-a-corps.
I'm sorry, do you write Annie?
It's much easier to critque what I assume is your competition than to write something interesting or new yourself.
I'll take a wild guess that you never took any media ethics courses or any real journalist courses or else you'd be spending your time right now researching an amazing article (which I'd enjoy reading), rather than mocking someone elses.
Oh, and I invite any witty remark you may have about this, go ahead prove my point.
I'm still fairly new to this area, so I enjoy reading the two papers to conclude how I should spend my time. Apparently you aren't spending yours writing.
-Stiffler
The entire Seattle Weekly is boring. What little integrity it had going for it before the takeover is gone now. The Stranger should do a special issue dedicated entirely to the demise of the Weekly, with special graphs and maps and historical timelines. I'd love to see that.
why, again, did you leave the theater section of the stranger?
I've worked with Mr. Longenbaugh. Yes, he can be an asshole and a challenge to work with (Strong personalities? In the arts? Never!). I enjoy his dramatic liturature, but I'm not sure that I would ever want him as a director again.
That having been said, I was glad to see SW pick him up again as a columnist since he seems to be the only one in this town who, in the past ten years, has displayed any skill with regards to theater arts writing, particularly as it pertains to fringe and small venues, besides Bret Fetzer. He's gloomy, yes, but at least he attempts integrity, unlike the majority of the theater review staff at The Stranger.
I have to hand it to Stiffler for what appears to be an accurate observation regarding Ms. Wagner's journalism. I don't disbelieve the existance of the WET voice mail, but if she (as seems to be apparent to me) wanted to start a shooting war between the two papers' theater departments, there are more journalistically effective ways that it could be done.
No one at The Stranger, for instance, has bothered to report on what's going on at Northwest Actors Studio. I can only assume that's thanks to the old (and ridiculous) enmities between the two organizations. Both sides need to grow up about that one.
Snarkattack: I was under the assumption that Ms. Wagner moved to Portland -- in fact, her final article as Theater Editor was about that.
Annie only moved over to the film section. She still sees and frequently writes about theater in Seattle.
Longenbaugh is a blowhard, nothing more. Somebody who admittedly sees little to no local theater has no business whatsoever writing a column about it, and only somebody who knows little to nothing about theater to begin with would think otherwise. Which is why he's such a good fit for the Weekly. Nothing Longenbaugh has written for them has been remotely original or interesting. The Empty Space closed? That was news. *Months* ago. But I'm sure it's all fascinating if you don't know better, or, I don't know, live under a rock.
Lastly, maybe The Stranger isn't covering what's going on at Northwest Actors Studio because Brendan is out of town. Or, maybe, it's because Northwest Actors Studio is so far beyond irrelevant on the scene that nobody cares. Just a thought.
Cheers.
Time Thief--
What are you talking about? My final article as performance editor stated that I was moving to the film section but would continue to write about plays. (Portland?) And yes, the reason why I'm mocking Longenbaugh and not competing with him (yet) is because Brendan's out of town and I'm busy with the film section. I can't wait till he gets back. Then we can get down to who's cultivated better sources, who's alienated fewer people, and who can dig up the dirt. My money's on Mr. Kiley.
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