My Phantom Blog

Posted by Bruce Miller
Just like a man whose leg has been amputated, I've been feeling the presence of this blog during the last several months even though it hasn't been a part of my on-going reality. Once a post is written--and it turns out I've written over 500 posts--it lives on in ether eternity. When someone--anyone--Googles anything from Southbury Summer Playhouse to Lil Wayne, this blog shows up on a radar screen.

In the month of its lowest readership, August 2010, 1,604 people stopped in to visit the Barksdale Buzz. When readership was at its peak (5,370 visits in Oct of last year) 173 readers stopped in every day.

We added zero content to the blog last month (hence the low turnout), and yet 1,604 people showed up for the party. They came after Googling to learn more about Crumbs by Israeli theatre artist Ravid Davera, or David Crank's Emmy Award-winning Art Direction of John Adams, or David Cromer's final Off Broadway performance as the Stage Manager in Our Town. Google, God bless their giga-byting hearts, directed them to Shalom from Israel - May 26 2007, or The Clean Lobby - Sept 23 2008, or My Regards to Broadway Part II - Aug 27 2009--three pages found (you guessed it) on the Barksdale Buzz.

Of course, I'm sure they Googled a million other things as well, and found them mentioned somewhere on this blog. Maybe they Googled your name, and found you here.

Our Marketing Director, Sara Marsden, is fast becoming a master of social and technological media, and she's been urging me to jump back into the blogosphere to help increase visibility (and connectivity) for Barksdale and Theatre IV. So here I am. I'll be writing shorter pieces, I hope, but once again enjoying the opportunity to share some of the thoughts going on behind the scenes at your theatres.

Keep those cards and comments comin'. I hope this will be a two-way conversation. We love to hear from you.

--Bruce Miller

A Time to Rest, A Time to Blog

Posted by Bruce Miller
Well, it's Dec 30. Time to stop singing "Christmas is a-comin' and Bruce is getting fat." More to the point, time for me to stop eating til it hurts.

Here I am, back on the blog--someplace I haven't been for a while. I'm not sure why I went on hiatus, or even if that's what I went on. It's quite true that my computer at work decided it would no longer allow me to post anything onto the Barkdale Buzz, period. And my brand new computer at home refused to let me create a document in Word and then cut and paste it into Blogger. All blog posts now have to be created in Blogger itself, which is a bit of a pain.

I have no earthly idea how to fix either problem.

And then there's the whole issue of Blogger spam. It started about four months ago over at the under-used Theatre IV blog, and I just ignored it. Then, about five weeks ago, spam-a-plenty decided to attack the Barksdale Buzz with even greater ferocity.

Most of the spam is in Chinese, but a fair amount of it deals in English with bizarre subject matters that are best left undisclosed. Every day Satan's little spam-meisters send three or four comments to the blog. I have to read (at least a little) and reject them before moving forward. It's all a little depressing. Again, I have no idea how to make it stop.

Most of all, I just haven't been waking up during the last five weeks thinking, "Gee, I want to write about ..." I've been waking up thinking about the four mainstage productions we opened since Thanksgiving, and the seven shows we sent out on national tour. I've been worrying about ticket sales and snow cancellations, reviews and re-subscription campaigns at Hanover Tavern, end of the year contributions (or lack thereof).

Now the new year is upon us, and once again my typing fingers are beginning to tingle. So I hereby resolve to fix the computer glitches and seek help to get rid of the comments from Spamalot. 2010 is going to be Barksdale's best year ever, and, I hope, a banner year for all of Greater Richmond's theatres.

I hope to see all of you soon at a theatre of your choice.

--Bruce Miller

We've Got a Golden Ticket! -- well, Ribbon!!

Posted by Bruce Miller
The Barksdale Buzz has made it onto numerous s**tlists over the years, but now for the first time we’ve also made it on to the list of the Top 100 Theatre Blogs in the world. This new list is published and promoted by The Daily Reviewer (http://thedailyreviewer.com/top/theatre).

To be honest, I have no idea what The Daily Reviewer is, but I figure it’s better, as Kelly Kennedy would say, than a sharp stick in the eye.

Thus far, 27 blog names and addresses are posted as being among the Top 100. And there sits the Barksdale Buzz, proudly, amidst Playbill.com, TheaterMania.com, and the London Theatre Blog. To the best of my knowledge, we’re the only regional theatre blog on the list.

The Daily Reviewer notified us of this latest honor in a comment to my Muskrat Love blog post. I knew those little rodents would bring us luck!

See you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller

Buzzin' and Bookin' to Beat the Band

Posted by Bruce Miller
I admit my relationship with the Barksdale Buzz has been an on-again, off-again affair. The reasons are several, having to do with the pull of other responsibilities both personal and professional, a fierce desire to avoid conflict, my tendency to become bored by routine, and a schoolboy’s response to the flirtations of other IT applications.

I believe it’s an important part of the job of the artistic director of any major professional theatre to communicate regularly and publicly about this most popular of all performing art forms. Like it or not, and I admit that I like it, there is a platform that comes with my position. I enjoy speaking in our Coffee & Conversations and Bifocals monthly programs. I’ve been known to get giddy leading walking tours in NYC or London during our annual theatre trips with Covington Travel.

But enjoying communication doesn’t make it easy or effective. Worthwhile, informed, articulate communication takes time and focus.

Not everyone agrees. Blogs and other new technologies encourage casual and free-wheeling correspondence. Several friends insist my writing is way too stuffy for a blog. But the minute I put on my artistic director hat, and more and more I’m realizing that I’m never allowed to take it off, every word I write becomes writ in stone. Sometimes people make judgements about Barksdale and Theatre IV based on little more than my syntax. Each of these judgments has a cash value, and I have 40 to 80 people counting on me every two weeks for their pay checks.

As I was contemplating all this last fall, the siren call of Facebook began to fill my ears. Facebook is not about writing; it’s about connecting. Perhaps here, I thought, I could continue to promote the two nonprofit theatres I represent without needing to pontificate. I kissed blogger goodbye, or at least farewell, and jumped into F’book like a skinny dipping kid on a hot night at the local swimmin’ hole.

Now, 1,575 friends later, I’m beginning to learn the ins and outs of Facebook. Without ever intending to, I’ve made people frustrated and upset; I’ve hurt feelings. I’ve learned to be cautious and to keep a much lower profile.

With only a couple early exceptions, I don’t play the Facebook games or take the surveys or join the causes or throw sheep at people.

Currently I use Facebook, professionally, as follows. I try to keep up with Theatre IV and Barksdale alum, to let them know they will always be remembered and appreciated. I try to befriend theatre students at VCU, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Oklahoma, hoping they will audition for us as they grow their professional careers. I try to befriend professional actors in Broadway, Off Broadway and nationally touring shows, wanting to spread the names of Barksdale and Theatre IV widely throughout our national talent pool. I network with “friends” and supporters of other theatres in town, including the upcoming “Broadway” series at CenterStage, hoping that Barksdale and Theatre IV will show up on everyone’s radar screen. I keep in touch with a full roster of civic and business leaders, reminding one and all that Barksdale and Theatre IV are worthy nonprofits that need broad-based community support.

Will any of it work? Who knows. But I’m trying.

And now, perhaps, I’ll begin writing a bit again on the blog. If and when I do, I hope you’ll all begin reading again, and commenting. Most of all, I hope each and every one of you will become a constant player in the Richmond professional theatre scene. It won’t happen without lots of energy coming from lots of people in lots of places.

Hope to see you at the theatre.

--Bruce Miller

Thoughts on the "Richmond Cultural Census"

Posted by Bruce Miller
There’s an interesting discussion occurring on Dave Timberline’s blog, Richmond VA Theater.

Under A Must Read, posted Dec 9, and Some Reactions, posted Dec 10, Dave discusses the survey of Richmond arts patrons that was conducted earlier this year. A summary of the findings of this survey has been published by the independent consulting firm Wolf Brown as the Richmond Cultural Census. These findings are available online. (I stole that link by cutting and pasting from Dave’s blog. He knows how to do it.)

Within the summary, the following statement occurs:

“Attending live stage plays or musical theatre productions was cited as ‘a vital activity’ by less than 10% of all respondents and another 44% said that they ‘enjoy it occasionally’, a significantly lower proportion than expected based on previous cultural census studies in other cities.”

“The real story here, however, is the low percentage of respondents who cite going to stage plays and musicals as vital activities. In other areas, we have seen these figures as high as 20% to 25% 'vital activity.'"

I agree with everyone that this is a cause for concern, sorta. I also agree with those who suggest that the concerns should be leavened with a little perspective.

1. Wolf Brown states forthrightly that the survey is not a scientific instrument. No attempt was made to reach a statistically representative sample. Those who participated in the survey all self-selected. In other words, those who took the survey were either individuals who wanted to take the survey or individuals who were encouraged to take the survey. Please consider this statement which appears in the fine print of the Wolf Brown findings: “The reader is cautioned not to use the survey data to generalize about all residents of Greater Richmond.”

2. I’m aware that colleagues in other disciplines distributed the survey to hundreds of their supporters and urged them to indicate their sincere and vital support for and interest in the discipline they all loved. That was a smart and good thing for my colleagues to do. I failed to do the same. No one at Theatre IV and/or Barksdale emailed the survey to those who are passionate about theatre. To the best of my knowledge, no theatre leader in town blasted the survey off to the theatre community. My bad and our bad. Big time. Because of this failing, I honestly feel that theatre lovers are under-represented.

3. In every arts discipline except theatre, the survey questions defined the discipline in terms of mass media or low to no cost personal involvement. Please consider these examplies. When survey respondents were saying that the literary arts were of vital importance to them, the top category of participation was “read books, newspapers, magazines for fun.” Who among us would not agree with that? When survey respondents expressed vital interest in dance, the four top categories were “watch dance on TV,” “see praise dancing,” “social dancing,” and “make up your own steps.” Those who showed vital interest in music chose as their two top categories “listen to music on local radio” and “buy music for your own collection.” The top draw for the visual arts was “collect art for home.” The main attractions for history and heritage programs (museums etc) was “watch history programs on TV” and “read books or magazines about history.”

Only in the category of theatre was the art form defined more specifically. Respondents were not asked if they liked to “watch theatre on TV" or "see comedies and dramas at the movies.” The two top areas of “vital interest” in theatre were “attend musicals” and “attend stage plays.” In no other arts discipline did “attend a live performance of this discipline” make it to the top of the “vital interest” column.

4. When it comes to making ticket purchases as opposed to voting in a survey, theatre wins hands down. A study was conducted a couple years back to see if it made sense to establish a community-wide box office. Every major organization submitted data regarding the number of tickets sold to the general public through the various box office outlets during the previous year. Ticket sales to Barksdale, Theatre IV, Broadway Under the Stars, and theatre events at the Modlin Center represented nearly 70% of all tickets sold. In other words, theatre outsold all other performing arts disciplines--combined.

5. One can presume that a large percentage of those with a “vital interest” in theatre would subscribe to theatre. In the last six years, the Richmond theatre subscriber base has been kicked in the teeth TWICE. In 2002, subscribers to TheatreVirginia were left holding three tickets for TVA shows that would never take place. No refunds were offered. Three or four years later, subscribers to Broadway Under the Stars were left holding four tickets for BUTS shows that would never take place. Again, no refunds were offered. Had I been one of these subscribers, my “vital interest” in theatre would be considerably dampened.

6. Every study I’ve ever read—and I’ve read a lot of them—indicates that 2 to 3% of the American population cares passionately about the art form of theatre. In a comment posted on Dave’s blog, Rick St. Peter wisely quotes Jon Jory, the legendary artistic director of Actors Theatre of Louisville, saying something like “no theatre that’s ever existed has attracted more than 2% of its potential audience.” The Wolf Brown survey says that 7% of all Richmond respondents say that “attending a musical” is “a vital activity for me,” and 6% say the same about “attending a play.” Truth be told, those figures are pretty impressive.

None of this is to say that theatre movers and shapers like each and every one of us should not take important lessons away from this survey. After a fairly careful study, here's some of what I consider to be the salient facts:

25% of all respondents said that they “haven’t but would like to try” “attending play readings.” Based on this and other observations, Barksdale will be establishing a play reading series next year.

19% of all respondents said that they “haven’t but would like to try” “taking classes.” Based on this and other observations, Barksdale will be attempting to fill this need in the near future.

24% of those people who have a history of buying few tickets to performance events indicate that they “haven’t but would like to try” “attending musicals” and “attending plays.” Through our new Entertainment Stimulus Package, Barksdale and Theatre IV have reduced prices on 10,000 tickets in the remainder of our 2008-09 Seasons to reach out to those who haven’t been attending due to higher ticket prices. We will also continue our existing $15 rush ticket policy.

All of us who care about theatre have much to learn. That’s one of the things I love about my job. There’s something new to learn every day.

And to those of you who do love the theatre--and don't worry, we know you're out there--please know that all of Richmond’s theatres wouldn’t be here without you. If you can and feel so inclined, please buy a ticket to a play today! And ask your friends to join you.

--Bruce Miller

So Long, Farewell

Dear Readers,

The time has come for me to say goodbye to the blog. Others now can begin to fill these pages with what they find interesting. I’m going to be spending my time on other matters.

The opportunity to share my thoughts has been fun for me, in many ways. I enjoy writing. I may write something again from time to time—never say never—but I won’t be continuing to log the hours I’ve been putting in during the last eleven months. I’ve worked hard on this project—pleasing some people, angering and embarrassing others. Now it’s up and running, and it’s time for me to move on. I’ll continue to read with interest what the rest of you have to say.

Thanks to those who have read these ramblings and to those who have shared kind words with me. I wish you all the best.

--Bruce Miller

Who's Reading / How Did They Get Here?

Posted by Phil Whiteway
Ever wonder who reads about Richmond theatre on the Barksdale blog? Well, our site meter won’t tell us who, but it does provide us with this information, for all you trivia buffs.

As of 10 pm this evening, 126 people have visited the blog since midnight last night. Of the last 100 visitors:
47 were from Richmond;
11 from Glen Allen;
4 from Rochester NY;
3 each from Harrisonburg VA and Astoria NY;
2 each from Ashland VA, Juneau AL, Hailey ID, Manassas VA and Hoxie AR; and
1 each from Midlothian VA, Lafayette IN, St Paul MN, Greer SC, Spartanburg SC, Cumberland VA, Van Nuys CA, Buffalo NY, Oswego NY, Atlanta GA, San Antonio TX, Brooklyn NY, Springfield VA, Summit NJ, Palatine IL, Cumberland VA, Goochland, Montgomery AL, Elmhurst NJ and Arlington VA.

And how did they get to us?
41 of these last 100 visitors linked to the blog from Barksdale’s homepage,
26 from unknown places,
6 from Dave Timberline’s blog,
4 from our Doubt page,
3 from Robin Harris-Jones’s blog,
2 from our Greater Tuna Guys and Dolls audition page,
2 from a Google blog search for “Studio Arena,”
1 from our Coffee & Conversations page,
1 from our Meet the Stars page,
1 from our Directions to Willow Lawn page,
1 from our Email Newsletter Sign-Up page,
1 from Windows Live Hotmail,
1 from a Yahoo search for “Michelle Shay actress,”
1 from a Yahoo search for “Alex Privatera,”
1 from a Yahoo search for “the Jane Froman Show,”
1 from a Google search for “Pernell Roberts today,”
1 from a Google search for “Gigi Galiffa,”
1 from a Google search for “Grant Mudge,”
1 from a Google search for “Emily Cole-Bitz,”
1 from a Google search for “Nina Abady,”
1 from a Google search for “Eric Williams Theatre IV,”
1 from a Google search for “Jack Cummings Richmond Virginia,” and
1 from an AOL search for “Carlton Candler.”

We normally pay no attention to this info on our site meter, and the info changes every day with no back-up. So don’t worry; your secrets are safe. But since everyone was getting so excited, I decided I’d check just to see who was looking in on our LORT conversation, and I thought some of you may find it interesting.

PS – I just checked again and our readership is now up to 133, the most hits we’ve had in one day in a while. People really care on both sides of this LORT issue. That’s a GREAT thing.

--Phil Whiteway

Random Thoughts on Blogs and Baltimore

Posted by Bruce Miller
I try to keep up with the several interesting theatre related blogs in Richmond, most notably Dave Timberline’s posts on http://richmondvatheater.blogspot.com/. I enjoy reading what Dave writes. Also, the comments posted by other readers are often informative, challenging and fun. Reading Dave’s blog is a good way to keep up with what fellow theatre types (Richmond and beyond) are thinking and saying.

I recommend his blog to you. Once there you can find links to lots of the more personal blogs written by Richmond theatre artists, several of which are also consistently interesting.

On the Barksdale site we offer links to all the theatres in town, but we don’t offer links to the blogs. Since many of the writers/owners of these blogs frequently review, audition for and/or work on our shows, we maintain a respectful, professional distance.

For the record, I like, admire and respect both David and Holly Timberline, and I’ve known them professionally for over two decades. I was there when they met. But I don’t hang with them. Maybe after I retire, Terrie and I will be so lucky.

If these ramblings are starting to make no sense, it may be because I’m bouncing off of recent comments in his blog.

I seldom post a comment on Dave’s blog because the world now has more than enough opportunities to hear my point of view. I’ve become one of those the press turns to for quotes. For the first 25 years of my 33-year career, that was not the case. But things change with time.

There’s been a robust blog conversation at Dave’s place recently regarding STYLE Weekly’s “report card” on Richmond theatre. My main beef with the “report card” was the whole Baltimore thing. (Not Taylor Baltimore--love her!) Baltimore the metro area. I think it’s clear to almost everyone (except, apparently, the editors of STYLE) that implying that Richmond’s population is larger than the population of Baltimore is … let’s say “misinformed.”

Baltimore and Washington are considered frequently to be one Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA); so are Richmond and Petersburg. And that's as it should be. Go to MapQuest and you’ll find that Barksdale at Hanover Tavern and Sycamore Rouge are 2 miles farther apart (43 miles separate the two) than are Arena Stage in D. C. and Center Stage in Baltimore (41 miles).

The US Census Bureau defines an MSA as “one or more adjacent counties or county equivalents that have at least one urban area of at least 50,000, plus adjacent territory that has a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured by commuting ties.”

The Washington/Baltimore MSA is the fourth largest metro area in the nation, with a total population, based on the most recent census figures, of 8,211,213. The Richmond/Petersburg MSA (which includes the cities of Richmond, Petersburg, Hopewell and Colonial Heights, the town of Ashland, and the counties of Amelia, Caroline, Charles City, Chesterfield, Cumberland, Dinwiddie, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, King and Queen, King William, Louisa, New Kent, Powhattan, Prince George, and Sussex) is the nation’s 42nd largest metro area, with a total population of 1,194,008.

In other words, according to the U S Census Bureau, the MSA population of Washington/Baltimore is nearly seven times larger than the MSA population of Richmond/Petersburg.

MSA populations indicate not only the number of potential ticket buyers available to a theatre. They also almost always correlate with the number and strength of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in each MSA, and the number and strength of private foundations. Larger cities like Baltimore tend to provide more local government funding to their major arts organizations than do smaller cities like Richmond. And those states that include the larger MSAs almost always provide more state government funding to their major arts institutions.

Leading professional theatres in larger MSAs therefore have access to more donated funds, and typically derive 40 to 50 percent of their total revenues from contributions.

Leading professional theatres is smaller MSAs have significantly less access to funding. Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV derive 28% of total revenues from contributions. Based on our combined annual budget of $5 million, the difference between 28% and the national standard of 40% is $600,000 per year. Imagine how much more we could do, how much better we could be with an additional $600,000 per annum.

“Report cards” are good when they recognize and reward your strengths while challenging you to be aware of and work toward addressing your weaknesses. “Report cards” are not-so-good when they measure your acheivements against unreasonable expectations and wind up demoralizing a community to the point where people no longer have the will to address those weaknesses.

There is absolutely no reason for anyone involved in Richmond theatre to feel demoralized. Don’t get me wrong—Richmond theatres (especially Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV) need to continually identify weaknesses and work to make them better. There is great need and opportunity for improvement and growth.

But by most reasonable measurements, Richmond theatre is now stronger than ever. Best of all, our theatres are uniquely Richmond, as they should be. We do everyone a disservice by insinuating that we could or should be more like theatres in Baltimore.

That’s my opinion. More to come.

--Bruce Miller

Wanted: New Blog-Writing Volunteer Intern

Posted by Phil Whiteway

Readers of this blog know that we’ve just said goodbye to our Volunteer Fall Marketing Intern, John Steils, pictured to the right. After fulfilling his three month internship, John has returned home to Walnut Grove, Missouri. We thank him for his positive attitude, his hard work, and his eleven (count ‘em, folks) blog entries. John did a great job for us, and we’ll miss him.
Now we need to find our next great Volunteer Marketing Intern to take John's place during the winter and spring of 2008, and maybe longer. We’re looking for someone who has a passion for theatre and writing, but no extensive experience or coursework is required. The perfect applicant(s) will be between the ages of 16 and 106 and able to spend between two to four hours per week—on their own schedule—researching and writing for the Barksdale Blog.

Our blog staff will discuss article ideas with the new Intern in advance, and the Intern will be encouraged to come up with ideas on his or her own. The Intern will have interview access to various theatre artists and administrators working on Barksdale productions. Blog posts will be written at home and emailed to a blog staffer, who will then edit the post to be in keeping with our blog stylebook and guidelines.

The Intern will receive byline credit on each blog post that he or she writes and we publish. The Intern can use his or her own name or a nom de plume, whichever he or she prefers. The Intern will also earn one free Barksdale and/or Theatre IV ticket to the show of his or her choice, pending availability, for each article that is submitted and published.

If you are interested in starting off the New Year with a bang, then please consider becoming a contributor to the Barksdale Blog. Applying is easy. Just send an email to … John Steils. He’s actually agreed to this one last assignment—helping us find his replacement. John can be reached at steilsparade@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Until then, Happy New Year! And see you at the theatre.

--Phil Whiteway

Moving Forward from our 200th Blog Post

Posted by Phil Whiteway

Now that we’ve passed our 200th blog post—this is #201—our staff leadership is debating “tone.”

Does the Barksdale blog have design and content that reflects the “professional” standards to which we aspire as we create our work on stage? Does our blog seem “business-like” and/or “serious,” encouraging major contributors, Richmond business leaders, and out-of-town cyber-visitors to understand that Barksdale Theatre is a cornerstone institution that takes its art and management seriously?

You can visit Stage Banter, the excellent Arena Stage blog, for an example of what we mean by “professional,” “business-like” and “serious.” http://blog.arenastage.org/

Does our blog have a “folksy,” “personal,” “we’re all part of the Richmond theatre family” feel that reflects Barksdale’s family-oriented past and the personalities of many, if not all, of our current staff leaders, including me? We’re well aware that the Richmond theatre scene is considerably smaller than the D. C. theatre scene, and that Barksdale Theatre is considerably smaller than Arena Stage. But the commitment to artistic and managerial excellence is the same. Does our blog reflect this?

Here’s another way to look at it.

If you didn’t know Barksdale Theatre, and you read the blog as it is now, would you perceive that Barksdale and Theatre IV, working cooperatively, form Richmond’s largest performing arts institution? Do we seem like a leadership organization that strives to meet national standards? Does the blog reflect a maturity, artistic sensibility, intelligence and dedication that Richmond theatre artists can be proud of when actors, directors, and designers from other parts of the country check us out?

Does our blog make it appear that Richmond’s leading professional theatre is a relaxed, welcoming, community-based organization or a serious professional theatre? In many ways we strive to be both. Which impression do we want to make?

Our staff leadership knows who we are and what Barksdale Theatre stands for. When I say "we," I mean the "big tent" we of the entire Barksdale family. Our staff leadership is proud of who we are. Does our blog reflect who we are?

These are important questions, not just for Barksdale, but for our theatre community. There are no wrong answers. Please give it some thought and let us know your opinions. Feel free to speak both favorably and to offer constructive criticism.

An average of 78 people read our blog each day. I’m hoping for 20, 30 or 50 comments. So this means I'm hoping to hear from you. Thanks.

--Phil Whiteway

Happy Half-Birthday to the Buzz

Posted by Bruce Miller

Tomorrow marks the sixth month anniversary of the Barksdale Blog--although I suspect you can't have an "anni" anything until you've reached at least a year. But as all parents know, up to the second birthday you always count by months.

So here we are. It will be six months ago tomorrow, on March 15, that we began this cyber adventure. You can click into our archives to revisit that first blog entry and almost every posting since.

I say “almost” because a few articles that found their way onto our blog for brief periods of time are no longer with us. For example, there was some blog editing (purging?) late at night on July 23, the “most read” day in our brief blog lifetime. During the course of that day we experienced a riot of anonymous comments, a few of which were fairly intense about our theatre or one or another of our respected colleague theatres.

As word of the riot spread around town—and wouldn’t you know I was the last to hear—a record 315 people logged on to view the carnage. When I discovered what was happening, I shut down the blog, temporarily, removed the posts that somehow prompted the blood bath and scrubbed them of all incendiary comments before reposting them the next day.

In another instance—I believe it was on August 6—I wrote what I considered to be an affectionate and respectful (but also satirical) post in homage to Robin Arthur. A few days before I had written some favorable comments about Henry IV, Part I at Richmond Shakespeare. Jacquie O’Connor, who was in IV/I, quite naturally wanted people to come see it. So she was encouraging friends to read my blog entry. Robin Arthur, it turns out, is blog averse, so she finally turned to Jacquie and said, “Jacquie, I wouldn’t read Bruce Miller’s blog if he wrote about my #&*@* !”

Now, I’ve learned my lesson and therefore substituted all those punctuation marks for the word Robin used, a word that is synonymous with “burro.” And "buttocks."

Robin told me this story herself so that I would get a good laugh out of her blog aversion, rather than hear the story through the grapevine and assume that she was intending to speak ill of me. I thought the story was a hoot. I also thought that the gauntlet had been thrown down.

I was determined to write a blog post about Robin’s … “burro.”

So I did. Just for fun. It was titled ROBIN ARTHUR’S ASS in big bold letters. And let me remind you all that “ass” is a perfectly acceptable word that I’ve read from the pulpit of my church. It’s a word that’s included in the script of Peter Pan, which Theatre IV will be producing this spring. It’s the moniker that Peter tells us Tinker Bell has assigned to Wendy. If you play the old Mary Martin tape from the Peter Pan TV special of the 1950s, you’ll hear it loud and clear ... with no one objecting.

But the language police are a lot pickier now than they were in the 50s, more’s the pity. So when my blog post told the tender story of Robin’s pet donkey, recounting it’s many adventures and including quite a few fun photos I found on line, the ladies in our Marketing Department, who are far more wise than I, reminded me that the Barksdale blog reaches out to all kinds of people who may be somewhat less “accepting” than we crazy theatre types. They suggested that perhaps I should disseminate my satire in a less public forum. They were of course right; the post went down.

But I saved it as a word document. So, if anyone really wants to read it and see the photos, just drop me a line and I’ll send it to you in a plain brown email.

Are all such blog purges the equivalent of censorship and therefore inherently evil? Yes. Do we do it anyway? Yes. Hey, business is business.

Basically, we’re learning the blog business as we go along. We're making some mistakes, and we're certainly not pleasing everybody. I know I still tend to be too long winded and formal (BORING is the word one commenter chose to put in all caps). Others on our blog tend to write far more whimsically and/or shorter. Hopefully we find a balance.

I know we sometimes post content too frequently for some (my pal Mr. Timberline comes to mind), too sparingly for others. Some want our blog to be more "educational," some want a good deal less of that. We appreciate all opinions and points of view. The business studies we're reading suggest that daily postings and multiple perspectives increase blog readership. Readership is what we're after.

Our prodigal Heifetz ("giving in abundance") has brilliantly suggested some 15-second video blog posts that we're going to be trying soon to promote our various productions.

And here’s where you come in. Now that we’ve established critical mass (138 blog posts; 719 people, shows, companies and places etc. indexed in our labels), we want to invite any and all of you to submit blog posts to us. Just write whatever you want to put out there, and email it to j.daugherty@barksdalerichmond.org with the word BLOG in the subject line. If the posts you submit contain content related to professional theatre in Metro Richmond or beyond, and/or if we think your post will be of interest to the Richmond theatre community, we’ll likely publish it. The exceptions will be blog posts that we consider to be mean spirited about our theatre, our artists, or any of our respected colleagues, be they individuals or organizations.

We cordially invite you to join us in the merry mayhem of blog land. Tell us your stories about theatres and productions of days gone by. Tell us what your life is like after moving from Richmond into a larger or smaller market. Tell us how you’re doing in college, or what it felt like to perform with that company in Idaho. Or Poughkeepsie. Tell us your opinion of what we could or should be doing better. We’re open to any and all voices; we welcome your input.

Six months from now, when we hit our One Year Anniversary, we hope you’ll consider the Barksdale Buzz to be YOUR blog too, not just ours.

--Bruce Miller

PS - Should you venture into the archives and discover that many of the pictures are still down, be assured that we know this and will be working, over time, on their restoration. Thanks.