A Q&A with prospective readers
Who are you? Ok, uh, hi, first of all? Nice to meet you?
Yeah, sure. Damn. All right. I am Francisco Mendoza, an Argentinian journalist, playwright, marketing consultant, advocate… stop me when you’ve gotten bored.
Now. Ok. Just visit my website if you want to learn more.
Sure. And what is this? This is The Downtown Beat, a publication that covers the art world (primarily theater, but I hope to expand to other fields) from a “downtown” perspective.
What does that mean, “downtown?” A long time ago, when the Earth was still cooling off, “downtown” was an expression that denoted non-commercial theater, which in New York City would’ve happened south of 14th street—ergo, “downtown,” to differentiate it from all the theater happening on Broadway and its environs. It’s kinda like saying “indie.”
I knew that already. Ok, so why did you ask?
Because I am only reading these questions, I’m not actually typing them. This is exactly the kind of experiment in writing that will be covered by this publication.
So that’s what this is about? Experimental stuff? Not necessarily—I actually have very little patience for experimentation. What this is about is publicists consistently telling me “well, if there’s no star attached or no ‘hook’ to sell this play on, we won’t be able to get press for it.” Why? How are we gonna discover new things if new things don’t get covered? We need journalists assigned to the downtown beat!
Hey, that’s the name of the publication! If this was a play, I would’ve let out an audible “hmmm” in this moment. Okay.
But you were saying. I thoroughly refuse the race to the bottom that the theater industry (and entertainment, and art in general) is engaging in right now, of adaptations and celebrities and terrible remounts. I think a lot of exciting people and work are going uncovered just because people are afraid they won’t generate clicks; I also think that a lot of interesting, important, challenging conversations are not being had because of that same reason. So I’ve created a space for all of it!
So you’re not worried about generating clicks? No, because Substack doesn’t do advertising, so all that matters are subscriptions. Loophole!
How will subscriptions work? You can subscribe for free and all the features (which I’m loosely defining as work that requires reporting) + the eventual free ticket to see shows. You can upgrade to paid ($5/month or $50/year) and get access to other content—mostly opinion pieces and guest essays—as well as Downtown Chats, a podcast in which I interview downtown artists. You can also become a founding member ($100/year) and make it even easier for me not to worry about clicks—and get paid membership benefits for life!
FOR LIFE?? Yes, for life!! Even if you downgrade to the free tier later, you’ll continue to receive paid member benefits. (Obviously, I will deactivate this option if I get a lot of founding members, so collect quickly!)
Wait, can you go back to the free tickets thing? Sure! When the theater industry reopened after the pandemic shutdown, I started getting a lot of offers for free tickets (a.k.a. “comps”), and curated a list of folks whom I would reshare them with, the “compies.” Eventually, this became more formal, and now producers reach out to me specifically as a papering service for specific performances; recently, this service has become paid (for producers; it continues to be free for attendees). Now, the Compies List™ is migrating to The Downtown Beat—if you want to start/continue receiving free tickets, make sure to subscribe!
Are the free tickets just for “downtown” shows? No, I’ve distributed anything from super small venues to Broadway—we don’t look a gift ticket in the mouth.
And how can I…
Submit my show for coverage by the publication? Go to the Contact page!
Share free tickets to my show with your readers? Go to the Contact page!
Pitch an article for the publication? Go to the Contact page!
Do anything else that- I’m gonna stop you right there. Just. Go. to. the. Contact. page.
So I’m hearing you say is: I need to go to the Contact page. Yes.
Even to subscribe? No, that you can do here:
Done! Yayyyyyy see you on the next post!
