Are you serious?

Where are The Stranger's fact-checkers on this one, sweetie?

Everyone knows that you do not put a comma in front of a dependent clause -- especially when it splits your subject!

I swear the internets are going to kill my spelling and grammar.

no more baugh posts please. no one cares.

This is embarassing for you.

Individually, you Stranger staffers are very altruistic and self-righteous liberals, safe in your perch above Value Village. And I'm sure it's very exciting for some of you to badmouth the harmless folk at the Seattle Weekly, to get caught up in the Stranger spirit of animosity. All of the hasty new Stranger hires are, I'm sure, revelling in this opportunity to feel even better about themselves.

The only problem with your continuing attacks is simple - your paper is in shambles, internally and on newsstands every week. You have Mudede and Graves - that is literally it! Everything else is garbage.

That the two professional writers you have on staff are also two that rarely engage in your war of words should tell you something - maybe you all should just grow up.

Paint @8 "harmless folk at the Seattle Weekly." Heh. You said it, not me.

Oh, and memo to Longebaugh: your article is 100% off base at best, and more likely 100% full of shit. Find a bridge and swan dive, plz.

There seems to be a prevailing opinion among the shrinking violets within Seattle's theatre community that any form of rampant, scathing criticism will inhibit their work from even being seen. I'm personally kind of conflicted about this. I mean, on one hand, if you don't have the guts to be criticized, then you shouldn't be producing a show in the first place. On the other, this "community" tends to romanticize themselves as casualties of the system. People who struggle daily to get their work seen outside of their safe, limited circles. There's something to be said this, I think. Fringe organizations tend to look at any sort press (particularly underground press) as a means to fill seats. And when it doesn't, or rather, when no one shows up, the tendency is to blame their one bad review rather than strive to do something better with their time. Let's face it. There is a LOT of BAD theatre in seattle. But often, I read your reviews (AND Longenbaugh's) screaming back at the page with a sense of teenage outrage. But while my response to *your* critiques tend more often than not provoked by legitimate responses to the work itself, Longenbaugh's vitriol reek merely of the grumbles of a failed playwright. And the fact that you're broadcasting these contentions at all makes the both of you both look like the idiot. Life is too short. Grow up.

-Reverend Foot

Yeah, right.

I really don't think even your best friends understand your curious obsession with the goateed wonder, Annie. Please stop now.

He blanket buried the entire city because of a handful of productions from mainstream companies that are all but disconnected from the local scene anyway. He clearly doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about.

Like this entire post. Initially it was somewhat exciting that the two weeklies would have an on going public debate about theater in Seattle with a large reading audience. Instead, everyone is much more content to point out spelling errors and liberally use the word ‘suck’ so they can see their own name in print.

That is obviously how important theater is to people in Seattle. We are all fools to be involved at all. It is a quixotic attempt to engage the public artistically and intellectually. Ideas could be discussed, the value of theater could be debated, but surely that is asking too much. Yet we dogs will come skulking back to be dismissed again by whatever is fashionable at the time or defined by easy phrases that can be substituted for thought.

But I also find it unbelievable how sycophantic Seattle can be when it comes to the power its readers give their reviewers, and how far what gets printed influences - no - DETERMINES what ends up getting seen. But that isn't the reviewer's fault. It means that the readers are fucking lazy. And so I don't understand why they're fighting with each other when they should be fighting with the "shrinking violets" they've sent for slaughter.

Trevor

(Someone is mixing their alter-egos, aren't they?)

Your assumption that Seattle readers, particularly the No-Shampoo variety that tend to constitute The Stranger might be right on. We're pretty much talking about the laziest motherfuckers on Earth. It doesn't change the fact that there is no other way for these productions to get listed other than to make fliers or post it on tpsonline.org, which is pretty much an incestuous gesture, since A) nobody actually READS fliers and B) the only people who frequent the tpsboard are other actors/playwrights/directors active in the fringe circles.

I'm not sure this has anything to do with this post. Although I should probably take responsibility for opening this can of oysters, I'm sure it warrants being discussed elsewhere.

Annie, we love you! (And we don't love you, we love to hate you. Which is just as lovely.)

Love like '68,

ReverendFoot

Not ironic, purposeful. I'm doing Baugh! because Brendan, our very competent theater news columnist, is out of town and can't compete with Longenbaugh directly. He'll be back shortly and I'll desist.

Trevor/Aaron: Are you the same person who sat on my lap at NWFF? The town can't be full of people who passionately adore my BABEL review. Can it?

On to the disconnect:
What does a spelling bee have to do with theater? As a theater person - nothing. As an average joe/audience member- everything, it is theater!
This is a problem that the theater community has. It is always a struggle to fill seats and we are desperate for any print that might get one person to come. So, like greedy children, we feel a certain ownership of this precious print commodity. But it’s not ours, nor are we its consumer, the print is for the reader and it is the job of the paper to write interesting things for the readers to read so that poor theaters will pay for ad space.

So really, I would love to see more Baugh! if it would be substantive (sort of like the last few entries of this thread). Although, it would help if there were better topics to discuss (applauding sets? Jesus Christ…what next, young actors putting on age make-up?) The stories that The Stranger does write about theater and theater happenings are a great boon for getting more people interested in seeing theater at all (be it spelling bees, opera or whatever). Reviews are, as Brendan observed once, largely for the actors and directors- however they can also be helpful for raising money ( ever thought of doing a star system?)

I wouldn’t encourage you to desist. I was sad to see you move to film, I always thought you to be very good critic. Most everyone else in the theater community didn’t but they are all babies who would prefer an Adcock book report to something scathing yet substantive (plus I don’t think you ever gave me a bad review).

What’s my point? Please keep talking about theater. It’s better to hated than ignored, though liked is best.

I want some damn accountability. Clearly and unfortunately that's not going to come from the Weekly's editors, so I'll take it where I can get it. I don't have a journalism degree, but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't get paid to write a big dumb article about the demise of theater in poor, naive Seattle when you don't actually see theater in Seattle. That's the opposite of integrity.

Oh, and merely calling oneself a grizzled veteran in print doesn't qualify his opinions. Even if he rephrases it slightly differently every week. That only works if you are on Fox News.