 |
| Rhinoceros and oxpeckers |
For at least 20 years my wife Rosemary and I went to the Arts Club Theatre openings without having to pay. Artistic Director Bill Millerd was a fan of my blog reviews of the plays in both the theatre on Granville and the one on Granville Island.
We had a similar situation with Early Music Vancouver and the Vancouver East Cultural Centre.
I made it a point that if I did not like a play or performance I would not write about it. My blogs contained my own photographs.
The situation went south when I had an Arts Club Theatre publicist tell me that I could not photograph her actors on the back alley and that I needed to ask permission in writing.
The Vancouver East Cultural Centre publicist said she saw me take some pictures at the Playhouse and that it was against regulations. She warned me that if I did that again I would be taken off her list. I promptly told her to take me off the list.
In the heady days of good publicists one of the best was Ballet BC’s Richard Forzley. He would call me up and tell me of a new dancer and would invite me to watch a practice.
Now in 2023 with media all but gone I wonder if publicists can send press announcements to anybody.
My guess is that both journalists and publicists are an endangered species.
On August 18 and I9 I watched a performance by a fantastic dancer, Béatrice Larrivée from the Bathsheba Dance Company. On both days the Arts Umbrella Dance Company’s lovely new theatre on Granville Island was 3/4s full with mostly her young female students from the classes she gave for a week there. I saw no media, no dance critics, and, incredibly, few if any dancers from Ballet BC.
Why?
I believe because few knew of the performance. Stir Magazine principals Janet Smith and Gaile Johnson at one time did dance criticism at the old Georgia Straight. Why where they not there? I would bet they did not know.
I have attended other dance and musical performances because I am on the email lists or friends with the people involved in Facebook.
With the all about dead Vancouver Sun this situation will not improve. What is interesting to me is that if you want to call the diminished Georgia Straight, you cannot. It has to be by email. The same applies to Stir.
In this age of communication I would define it as the age of miscommunication.
Our local CBC Radio and TV could step in but they are more likely to tell us about bridge traffic than inform us of cultural events.
.
