A couple months ago, I was interviewing playwright Paul Rudnick about his play “Valhalla,” which was about to open at the New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco.
Rudnick is an incredibly interesting, funny guy, and it would be a wasted opportunity to keep him confined to one topic.
So I mentioned that I’d be starting up a blog and was wondering what to call it.
I told him I had a regular Friday column in our newspapers called Jones for Theater, and he laughed.
I asked him what I should call the blog.
He thought for a minute, then said, “Oh, that’s easy. You call your blog Jonestown.”
I cringed and told him that, for many reasons, I couldn’t really use that name and besides, it didn’t really suggest that it was about theater.
Rudnick thought for another minute.
“OK. You call it Cherry Jonestown.”
We both laughed, and he added: “There are some jokes only theater dogs can hear.”
So true.
And here it is. The blog: Theater Dogs: Backstage with Chad Jones.
Enjoyed your entry about Raul Rudnick’s suggestions for a blog name. Theater Dog is great, but I also liked Cherry Jonestown — maybe not for a column name, but wouldn’t it make a great drag name?
Please feel free to become Cherry Jonestown. If this blog can serve any purpose, let it be to name the great drag queens of our day!
Not only is it a milestone birthday for our beloved blogger and Bay Area Critic, Chad Jones, but it’s the first anniversary of Theater Dogs. Happy Birthday, Chad, and thanks for a year of insightful and entertaining bits that keep the world humming a sincere and merry tune. What I’d like to know is, did Richard ever become Cherry Jonestown, and if so, is he sporting the longed-for Theater Dogs official t-shirt?