Taking the Tweed Out of the Arts Wardrobe
By Andrew Guy Jr.
Houston Chronicle

St. Petersburg, Fla. Sept. 20 -- A quiz: Two plays are opening. "Mamma I Don't Want to Sing in No Beauty Shop" and "Grease."

"Mamma'' is in a community theater, but will be a big hit among African-Americans _ a large portion of your town's population.

"Grease" has been booked at the Mac Daddy Boffo Performing Arts Megaplex for a year.

You have one theater critic. Which to cover? And how to cover it?

"I think there's something to be said for not covering 'Grease' for the fifteenth time," said Christopher Blank, performing arts writer at the (Memphis) Commercial Appeal. "A lot of the so-called `chitlin circuit' plays are big hits in a lot of cities like Memphis, and African-Americans are drawn to them. We have to cover that stuff like we do everything else."

It's just one way of "taking the tweed out of the arts wardrobe," according to Blank and other panelists at the 57th annual AASFE convention in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Blank, along with Steven Winn, art and culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle, and John Parks, a professor at the University of South Florida school of theatre and dance, said most arts coverage is dry and out of touch.

"When was the last time a reader read a theatre review and said, `Gosh, I know what I'm going to do for the weekend.' '' Blank said.

Parks said writers and editors must "immerse" themselves in a topic to truly provide context for readers.

"I feel that a lot of writers, when they write, are on the outside of something and treat the project like it's an anthropological project that they can't get too close to," Parks said.

Winn proposed to his bosses a year ago that he become an arts and culture critic, roaming the Bay area writing about various arts and pop culture observations. He has written pieces on everything from the physical beauty of dancers bodies to the culture of attending a San Francisco Giants baseball game.

Blank said younger writers would get interested in the arts if it were presented in a compelling manner. He suggested three ways for editors to "spice up" the arts beat:

• Generate excitement. "We owe it to our readers to create a sense of optimism," Blank said. "There's a lot of great arts in a lot of communities."
• Embrace emerging art forms. Recognize the importance of the smaller, unique arts groups. And don't shun something that's popular as being "pop" culture. "I think it's a mistake to put `high' art in one category and `pop' art in another," Blank said. "They're both important."
• Go to arts events. "How do you know if you're critic is good or bad if you're not seeing what they're seeing."

Andrew Guy Jr., a 2003 AASFE fellow, is a features writer at The Houston Chronicle.