The next few weeks, in a nutshell:

Monday, April 2 (tonight): workshop with Ryne Martin, Managing Editor and Reporter of the Courier-Observer in our normal meeting room (Union 204). NO ISSUE THIS WEEK NOR NEXT WEEK BECAUSE OF BREAK.

• Come prepared to ask questions! These workshops are what we make them! =)

- April Break - (Use the next two weeks to prepare for our next issue)

Monday, April 16: normal meeting in Union 204 - DEADLINE for the next issue (4/20/12).

See you all tonight! For those who we won’t see, have a fantastic break! 

SUNY Potsdam’s MTO presents…

Image Courtesy: James Bucki

“A Chorus Line,” April 12-14.

(See more here) 

Press Release:
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Contact: Audrey Saccone, Producer

The Musical Theatre Organization at SUNY Potsdam is excited to present “A Chorus Line,” running Thursday, April 12 through Saturday, April 14 at 7:30 PM in Dunn Dance Theatre. The production is free for SUNY Potsdam students, $7 for the general public and $5 for senior citizens and non-SUNY Potsdam students.

Developed in the 1970’s, “A Chorus Line” was written to tell the story of those without a voice – the dancers on the line in any given Broadway show. Co-creator and original co-choreographer Michael Bennett facilitated a series of interviews with Broadway chorus dancing veterans to tell their life stories, the ups and the downs. These stories were “workshopped” for two years before 19 concrete characters were created, only 8 of whom would be able to eventually perform “on the line.”

“A Chorus Line” features a book by James Kirkwood & Nicholas Dante, music by Marvin Hamlisch, and lyrics by Edward Kleban. The conception, original direction, and original choreography are credited to Bennett, with a co-choreographer credit to Bob Avian.

The production is entirely student-run under the advisement of Dr. Lonel Woods. A dedicated staff of students include Producer Audrey Saccone (a senior Vocal Music Business and Musical Studies: Theory/History major from Colonie, NY), Stage Director Gina Bilardi (a  junior Theater Education major from Plainview, NY), Choreographer Jana Prager (a senior Dance and English Literature & Writing major from Valley Stream, NY), Music Director Jamilla Fort (a senior vocal Music Education major from Cortland, NY), Stage Manager Elizabeth Munz (a junior Theater major from Osceola NY).

Says Director, Gina Bilardi, “This show is not about spectacle. It is about the audience getting to know, and fall in love with, these very real characters. This classic, timeless musical reminds us of what it means to believe in a dream and stop at nothing to achieve it.”

The cast of characters is made up of 28 students who major in subjects varying from sociology to history to secondary education, not just music, dance, and theater. All of the performers onstage have felt a piece of what the characters in “A Chorus Line” felt, having to work hard in the day to survive in order to be able to perform your art in the evening.

“A Chorus Line” will be presented for only three performances: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, April 12-14 at 7:30 in Dunn Dance Theatre. Tickets are free for SUNY Potsdam students, $7 for the general public and $5 for senior citizens and non-SUNY Potsdam students.  Seating is general admission and tickets will be available at the door. For advanced  reservations, please  call SUNY Potsdam Student Government Association at (315) 267-2588. Additional information can be found online at www2.potsdam.edu/mto.

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Spring 2012: Volume 84, Issue 18

Browse the latest issue here!

Open Office Hours with President Schwaller

The next series of open office hours for members for the campus community to meet with President Schwaller have been scheduled for the spring 2012 semester. To make a 15-minute appointment during one of the following times, please contact Diane Brown by phone at extension 2100 or by email at browndr:

Fri, March 30: 8:30 - 9:30 a.m.
Thurs, April 5: 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Wed, April 11: 11:00 a.m. - noon

Workshop 3/26/12

Courtesy: Jennifer Richardson

We got a chance to catch up with Patrick Harris, former News Editor and Managing Editor of the Racquette, via Skype last night!

Meeting tonight!

We’ll be meeting at 7:30 in Kellas 102 for a workshop — Patrick Harris, Racq Alumnus, will be Skyping in to talk about what he’s up to, his post-SUNY experiences, and how the Racquette did (or didn’t?) factor into what he’s doing now (or plans to do)!

Spring 2012: Volume 84, Issue 17

The collapse of print advertising in a graph:

Call it creative if you want, but this is what economic destruction looks like. Print newspaper ads have fallen by two-thirds from $60 billion in the late-1990s to $20 billion in 2011. 

You sometimes hear it said that newspapers are dead. Now, $20 billion is the kind of “dead” most people would trade their lives for. You never hear anybody say “bars and nightclubs are dead!” when in fact that industry’s current revenue amounts to an identical $20 billion.

So the reason newspapers are in trouble isn’t that they aren’t making lots of money — they still are; advertising is a huge, huge business, as any app developer will try to tell you — but that their business models and payroll depend on so much more money. The U.S. newspaper industry was built to support $50 billion to $60 billion in total advertising with the kind of staffs that a $50 billion industry can abide. The layoffs, buyouts, and bankruptcies you hear about are the result of this massive correction in the face of falling revenue. The Internet took out print’s knees in the last decade — not all print*, but a lot.

Don’t just blame the bloggers. For decades, newspapers relied on a simple cross-subsidy to pay for their coverage. You can’t make much money advertising against A1 stories like bombings in Afghanistan and school shootings and deficit reduction. Those stories are the door through which readers walk to find stories that can take the ads: the car section, the style section, the travel section, and the classifieds. But ad dollars started flowing to websites that gave people their car, style, travel, or classifieds directly. So did the readers. And down went print.

The decline is stunning. “Last year’s ad revenues of about $21 billion were less than half of the $46 billion spent just four years ago in 2007, and less than one-third of the $64 billion spent in 2000,” Mark Perry writes. In the next few years — and hopefully, in the next few decades (I like print!) — we’ll see papers and magazines continue to invest in their websites and find advertising and pricing models that support journalism independently. Otherwise, one hopes that rich people continue to be fond of paying for the production of great writing on bundles of ink and paper.

(Source: The Atlantic)

No issue this week,

but we will be having a meeting to chat a little before break. The agenda is loose and may include, but will not be limited to:

• Last week’s issue — questions, comments, etc.
• Article ideas for the issue after break (3/23)
• Workshop day back from break: Jeff Savitskie, St. Lawrence County Editor of the Watertown Daily Times

See you then!