In the entertainment business, the Capital Region is considered a second-tier market. That is, it’s not among the major city markets because of its smaller population. But if you look at the arts activity in this region, it more closely resembles that of a large market. That point is well illustrated by the Arts & Entertainment section that will be coming your way this Sunday.
It is our winter/spring preview section, and as usual, it is teeming with exhibits, concerts and shows.
Three times a year, The Gazette arts staff puts together such a package — the winter/spring listings on the second Sunday in January, the summer preview on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and the fall package on the second Sunday in September.
Frankly, the work is a big help for our own planning of coverage in the coming months, but the main reason we do it is so our readers can get a glimpse of what is ahead. And I’m sure many of you are as impressed as I am about the bounty. The package, which takes four pages, lists coming events in local theater, popular music, classical music, jazz, dance and visual arts.
The six arts writers who do the extensive work required to get the listings together also provide five best bets apiece to help guide readers. And you can be sure those recommendations have considerable merit, because each of the writers has been covering the local arts scene for at least a decade, far more in some cases.
Michael Hochanadel, for example, has been writing about pop music for The Gazette since the 1970s. Tim Coakley is a longtime jazz fan and writer, with his own weekly show on WAMC radio going back more than 20 years. Likewise, Wendy Liberatore has been giving her spin on dance for more than two decades. Geraldine Freedman in classical music, Karen Bjornland in visual arts and Paul Lamar in theater also have longtime service at The Gazette. If you add in the other reviewers who write for us (Dan DiNicola, Dave Singer, Carol King, Bill Rice, Leslie Kandell, Jack Rightmyer and John Rowen) but aren’t involved in the preview sections, you have about 200 years of experience in local arts coverage.
Some venues are better than others in getting their information to us, and there often are last-minute changes, but we try to do as complete a package as possible. Another challenge is trying to get all of this information to fit in four pages, the maximum we can handle for the Sunday section and still leave room for our usual Sunday items. The summer is the biggest listing of all, because of places such as the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Tanglewood and several theater companies that operate only in the warm-weather season.
That is why we have to run the listings in a smaller typeface than what we use for our stories, which I know can be a challenge for some readers. But we’d rather run as complete a listing as possible in the smaller type than cut out venues so that we can use a bigger type size.
If you have suggestions about our preview sections, let us know. In the meantime, start scanning through the listings to find some fun things to keep you entertained during these cold winter months.
Dick Bennett is the Gazette’s features editor.
