INTERVIEW: Introducing ‘The Flashpaper’ for theater lovers
Photo: Claudia-Lynn Rightmire is featured in the first issue of The Flashpaper. Photo courtesy of the publication / Provided by Everyman Agency with permission.
Mark Blankenship, a successful arts journalist and podcaster, has an idea, and he thinks you’re going to love it. He has loved theater ever since he was a child, and he has made many connections in the world of performing arts. But he also has a hankering to go deeper with the important issues that impact the art form.
This idea is particularly important during these historic times, with COVID-19 closing theaters for the foreseeable future and conversations in society about racial justice, equity and LGBTQ rights. The theater world is not separate from these impactful issues; it’s intrinsically integrated with what’s going on in communities around the country.
To that end, Blankenship and a team of collaborators have created a new print-only publication called The Flashpaper. The journal covers the important and pressing issues that are affecting the theater community, and the inaugural issue, now available, asks the simple, yet profound, question: “What will it be like when social distancing ends?”
The Flashpaper will not simply be filled with articles, but also scripts, comics, essays and photo diaries. “The first issue includes a foreword by David Henry Hwang, an afterword by Sarah Treem, and contributions by Raquel Almazan, Clare Barron, SarahEinspanier, Kelley Nicole Girod, Ayun Halliday, Kinesis Project dance theatre, The Living Theatre, Tara Moses, National Asian American Theatre Company, Parallel Exit, Meropi Peponides, and TheaterBreaking Through Barriers,” according to press notes.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Blankenship, who is the founder and editor of the publication. He is also the current host of The Showtune Countdown on iHeartRadio Broadway and the pop music podcast Mark and Sarah Talk About Songs. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Playbill and Variety, among other publications, and he served as founding editor of TDF Stages. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
How did the idea for The Flashpaper first come about? What inspired you to create the publication?
I had the first glimmer of The Flashpaper when I was at a launch event for an annual publication called Musical Theater Today. That book is published with a print-on-demand model, which means the only copies that are produced are the ones that are paid for. That also means there’s very little overheard. You don’t have to shell out huge amounts of money to print, say, 500 copies that you might never sell.
Meanwhile, my career has allowed me to work with a lot of indie theater artists, and as a group, they’re incredible people. These are folks who create boundary-pushing art with very few resources, and because nobody’s in it to make a fortune, they’re almost always driven by passions and ideas that I find really inspiring. Eventually I thought, well, what if I started a print-on-demand publication that featured indie theater artists? I realized that would mean very little up-front financial risk, but it could also mean a nice payout for the artists who were involved. Because the other thing that’s true about print-on-demand is that that the low overhead means printing costs are lower. You get a higher profit per book sold, and I knew with 10-12 contributors, we could generate enough profit to send a dollar to every artist for every copy sold. That’s what we’re doing, and it can add up really quickly.
Once I had the idea that I could edit a publication that gives indie theater artists the space to create things and also be well compensated, I was hooked. It’s thrilling!
As a bonus, I’ve been able to work with Ben Van Buren on The Flashpaper, and he’s also the publisher of Musical Theater Today. It turns out that was one of the most meaningful launch parties I’ve ever attended.
What can readers expect in the first issue? How did you get David Henry Hwang to write a foreword?
The first issue of The Flashpaper has 12 wildly different responses to the same prompt: What will it be like when social distancing ends? The contributors were told they could respond in any format that could be printed in black and white, and we’ve ended up with original plays, a hand-drawn comic, a series of photo essays, a manifesto, a guidebook for making the theater more just, several memoir-style pieces and a satirical review of immersive theater in the year 2023.
A mutual friend put me in touch with David Henry Hwang. I hoped he would write the foreword because he has such a remarkable history of writing about how American society works, and the issue’s prompt about life after social distancing is rooted in that idea. To my surprise and delight, he wrote back the same day that I emailed him to say that he would contribute.
Why a print-only publication? Is that a philosophical or economic decision?
From the beginning, I was dedicated to making this a print-only journal because there’s something special about a tangible object. I’ve been able to hold an advance copy of The Flashpaper in my hands, and it feels permanent in a way that I like.
I like the idea that when people pay for The Flashpaper, they get an object. It tickles my particular fancy to think that when someone buys The Flashpaper, they’re going to bring it into their home. They can refer to it later. They can move it to different rooms. It can be part of their physical world in a way that an online article can’t. So why not give it a shot? Why not give indie theater artists a chance to reach people this way?
When (or if) things get back to normal for the theater community after the pandemic, do you envision this continuing on?
Absolutely. The Flashpaper is going to release its second issue in December, and we’re planning to release at least two issues next year. There will always be urgent current events that artists can speak to in a thrilling way, and there will always be a need for artists to have an income stream.
When were you first introduced to theater? What were some of your earliest memories?
My first theater memory is playing a lizard in my kindergarten play. I’m happy to report that I still know my line. And I do mean ‘line,’ singular. I only had one, but my parents told me I delivered it well.
Growing up, I did a lot of acting in the first-rate community theater in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and when I was in second grade, I wrote two short plays that got produced in an anthology show they did for young people. By the time I finished high school, I was hooked.
Who do you see as your target audience?
The Flashpaper is published for people who think independent artists are exciting. Our audience is anyone who gets excited by the idea of highly accomplished, just-outside-the-mainstream creative types speaking freely on urgent current events.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Flashpaper’s inaugural issue is now available. Click here for more information.
