PLAZA SUITE ENSUITE

posted by James Reel

    Burt Schneider, KUAZ’s local host for All Things Considered, has this to say about my post concerning how the non-interactivity of broadcasting will defeat our dreams of making KUAT a community “plaza”:

I agree with you about the plaza concept. It's a catchy idea, but realistically doesn't apply to "linear radio" or whatever the current term is. It probably makes sense as far as new media goes especially if the listener can build his/her own station as in pandora.com. But then what do they need us for? I remember when the KBAQ license was up for grabs and there was discussion about whether it would go to ASU or the community college district. ASU argued that they could program the station using resources at their music school. Eventually, both entities were given a hand in running and programming the station. I've always wondered why KUAT-FM didn't have more offerings from the UA's School of Music. It seems with the advent of satellite and internet radio, a case could be made for eliminating stations like KUAT-FM unless they truly offered a service that couldn't be duplicated by a national service.

    Exactly. Next week I’ll have something to say about KUAT’s connections, past and future, with the UA school of music.
    By the way, if you're wondering what Pandora is, Terry Teachout explains it all for you quite well, but Alex Ross points out that lovers of classical music may just as well keep the lid on the box.

LOCALS 'BOYS' MAKE GOOD

posted by James Reel

    This past week, I had the most pleasant kind of surprise you can experience in the theater. I went to a show put on by a community troupe, ready to make allowances for the usual weaknesses, but witnessed work on a much higher level than I would ever expect from this group:

    In a small hall in a retirement facility tucked a couple of blocks behind St. Joseph's Hospital, a little community-theater troupe has mounted a production that's about as good as any you'd get from the city's more professional companies.
    Finely balanced performances lend both grace and exuberance to Tom Griffin's The Boys Next Door, a comedy-drama about four mentally challenged men coping with the world under the supervision of a kind but burned-out social worker. It's a challenging project for the Catalina Players, not because of the subject matter, but because the script forces the actors to throw themselves into totally alien roles, rather than merely play variations on themselves.

    You’ll find the rest of my review in the Tucson Weekly.