Supporting & Cultivating Theatre
in the Coachella Valley & Morongo Basin

Yesterday I attended a follow-up meeting with Julie Makinen, Executive Editor of the Desert Sun. The purpose of our meeting was to discuss how best to effect new and improved coverage of local theatrical productions to the ultimate benefit of Desert Theater League Producing Members and Desert Sun readers.

What Ms. Makinen and I agreed upon follows:

Each Producing Member or his/her publicist will be responsible to contact a yet-to-be-named Desert Sun associate via email or an online form, and provide

The title of the upcoming production

A brief description of the plot (up to 100 words)

Dates and times of performances

Location of performances

Ticket cost

How to purchase tickets, e.g., box office phone, website, etc.

A photo from the production

Initially, notice of Member productions will appear in a "local theater" listings section each Thursday in Desert Post Weekly, a free Desert Sun publication focused on entertainment and available at many hotels and newsstands. After a few weeks and once debugged, the listings will also appear in the Desert Sun's Friday Weekendtabloid section. Thereafter, the listings will be incorporated into and appear on the Sun's website. Finally, there will be occasional reviews in the "Best Bets" column. (Note the review of "Perfect Arrangement" in today's publication.)

This venture will only succeed if you, the Producing Member, take the initiative to inform the Desert Sun of impending productions. The deadline will be approximately 2 weeks before publication. The Sun will not be contacting you seeking information. The burden rests upon you.

Many of you have mentioned to me that you would like greater publicity of your productions via the Desert's leading newspaper. This is your chance to achieve that goal! Don't miss out.

Please respond to me by January 25 if you are interested and plan to participate in this program. If there is enough interest on your part to move forward, more details from The Desert Sun will be available in early February.