What's up with Curtain Calls this summer

With the 2007/08 theater season rapidly coming to a close, Curtain Calls is gearing up for a summer-long season of fun, change and experimentation.
For starters, Curtain Calls has listened to its readers and will head to the world famous Stratford Festival this summer. Guest Critic Robert W. Bethune has graciously offered to drive to Stratford not once, but twice over the next few months to share with us his perspective on many of the shows our Canadian friends are staging this season. Look for his insightful reviews beginning in two weeks. (And check out our exclusive online-only theater section each week for all the latest Stratford news.)
Curtain Calls also plans to check in with a handful of Michigan's summer theaters over the next few months. Saugatuck's Mason Street Warehouse, for example, has another entertaining slate planned – including the first regional productions of "Altar Boyz" and "Shout! The Mod Musical" that will open and close its 2007 season. (The middle two shows promise to be big audience pleasers, as well!)
And, of course, Curtain Calls will continue to review summertime shows from Detroit to Lansing – and everywhere in-between!
But not necessarily the way we've doing it in the past.
One problem with trying to provide Michigan's most comprehensive theater coverage is that sometimes there's simply not enough space in the paper for every review that needs to run – or for every preview we'd love to write. One solution we began using more frequently this past season was to move reviews into other sections of the paper, such as onto the Cool Cities pages, which proved especially helpful during the theater season's busiest weeks. Still, we had to bump scheduled reviews several times this season when those pesky, last minute ads came in. And since ads pay the bills, ads get top priority. (Try explaining that to a group like the Jewish Ensemble Theatre Company, though, that had two reviews bumped this season to "online only" – and worse, in the rush to meet our deadline, we failed to tell readers where to find them. Trust us: We HATE when that happens.)
So beginning in a few weeks we're going to experiment a little with different ways to deliver the same high quality coverage you've come to expect from us – but in a variety of different formats.
Some reviews might begin in the print edition of BTL and conclude in the online-only edition, while others might simply be brief "mini-reviews" similar in style to the "Editor's Pick" column we introduce this week in Theater Events. And, hopefully, you'll begin to see a greater mix of previews and interviews on the Curtain Calls pages, as well – something we've been wanting to do for ages!
What's NOT changing, however, is our commitment to review each and every professional theater and opera production in our coverage area that runs three weekends or more.
Put simply, then, our goal for the summer is to develop a format that will improve our delivery of theater news each and every week, both online and in print – one that will best meet the needs of our readers, the theater community, our busy critics and our advertisers.
It won't be easy, of course. And I'm sure we'll try a few things that probably none of us will like.
But with your honest feedback, we can finalize plans to make the most comprehensive theater coverage in town even better beginning this fall!
See ya at the theater!