Indy Theatre Habit

After a long conversation with Sue at the IRT box office this afternoon, I caved.  I accepted free tickets to see “The Power of One” and “The Piano Lesson.”  Less than two months as a theatre reviews blogger and I am back to accepting media passes.

Sigh…

I was not going to accept any more media passes from any theatre for two reasons: 

1) Only the most financially successful theatres can afford to offer media passes.  I want to offer my readers reviews of shows from a wide variety of theatres around town.   Accepting media passes (free tickets) from the successful theatres feels as if I am punishing them for being successful.  Surely this makes for bad karma.

2) Only the most professional theatres understand that giving a media pass to a reviewer is not the same thing as paying a PR person to write a publicity piece.   By not accepting any media passes at all, I hoped to prevent confusion or hurt feelings.

But sometimes I worry about other people’s feelings too much.  In any case, I am not confused about what I am doing or for whom I am writing when I write a review.  Surely my writing conscientiously about theatre makes for good karma.

The fact remains that I am not independently wealthy.  I can write about more shows if I get into at least some of them for free. 

And by the way, publishers send me gazillions of free books every year on the off-chance that I will help create “buzz” among readers at my library and beyond.  I don’t lose sleep over this.  I just say “thank you” and read and report on as many of the gifts as I can.

So, okay, I’ll accept media passes from theatres that insist on offering them to me.

And I’ll say “thank you” every time. 

Because I really do appreciate it.

Hope Baugh - www.IndyTheatreHabit.com