OPINION: The New York Times accepts unsolicited press releases for Off & Off Off Broadway

You should send them yours

Ulises Ramiro

A little while ago, I wrote a piece saying that The New York Times should accept unsolicited Off and Off-Off Broadway press releases and that a press agent shouldn't be the only way for a show to get reviewed by The Times.

Guess what?

You can do this.

Send your release to: theater@nytimes.com

Does this mean you're gonna get a Times review? No. Of course not. Even with a great press agent, you might not get the Times to go to your show.

But guess what?

Word on the street is that Helen Shaw, the new Chief Theater Critic at The Times, is making changes over there, ones to help smaller shows. She has started to prove this in a bunch of ways, ones that we see and we're happy about.

Helen Shaw! Our Off and Off-Off Broadway Queen!

Before Helen, I would've said the odds of you sending a press release to that email and getting a response would be less than zero. However, now that Helen is in charge, I'd say your odds have improved.

Do you have an Off or Off-Off Broadway show coming up?

Send your press release to theater@nytimes.com

Theater in this town used to be about seeing the next great American play, and that didn't have jack shit to do with Disney World or Mickey Mouse. This city's theater scene used to have a heartbeat determined to see the next great American play.

The heart and soul of theater ain't in Times Square, it's in the Off and Off-Off Broadway scene. Theater should not just be for tourists and rich people. Working class New Yorkers need the American theater to help us breathe and to help us live. To challenge us and transform us. To assert that the American theater is alive and well because of the artists who risk absolutely everything to make it happen.

Fuck art made by artificial intelligence and fuck anyone who thinks theater is just for rich people. Theater is an eternal human need and it should be viewed and treated that way.

Long live the Off and Off-Off theater scene in New York City and the crazy motherfuckers who make it happen.

It is time for The New York Times to step back up and shine light on the theater in this town that takes risks, and to help artists who risk everything.

Here's that email again one more time: theater@nytimes.com