About
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 focused on “downtown” art—primarily theater, but hopefully it’ll continue to expand into other mediums as it gets older and wiser.
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.” It’s like there are no writers 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 things are going uncovered just because they won’t generate clicks. This is my attempt to shine a light on those things that have no “hook;” as far as this publication is concerned, having no hook is the hook. It could be a literal play happening downtown, or it could be the runt of a season of a well-known theater that no one is talking about—I wanna know about 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 get a monthly roundup of what’s going on “downtown” (the spiritual downtown, which is not necessarily actually below 14th street or even in New York) + the eventual free ticket to see shows. You can upgrade to paid ($5/month or $50/year) and get access to other content—mostly features on specific shows and essays about art—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 be acknowledged at the end of each post!
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…
Get my show covered by the publication? Go to the Contact page!
Share free tickets to my show with your readers? Go to the Contact page!
Write 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!