ENTER JAQUES
Introducing your biweekly guide to the international theater industry
Greetings, new reader! Welcome to Jaques, a biweekly newsletter about the international theater industry. Thanks for taking a look.
Jaques will bring you a global perspective on the theater business, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday. It’s an angle on the industry that I love writing and learning about. If you read along with me, I’m betting you’ll find it as fascinating as I do.
The first issue of Jaques arrives in email inboxes on Tuesday, October 24, 2023. That inaugural edition will be free for all readers.
But before that: You’ve got questions! Here’s what you need to know.
ONE NEWSLETTER, TWO PARTS
Every issue of Jaques has two sections:
ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS
First up is the ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS, my round-up of international theater news from media outlets around the world. Plus you get notes on international tour stops and the openings and closings of big-deal shows, as well as job opportunities and employment transitions. It’s your biweekly bulletin on the global theater business.
THE SPOTLIGHT STORY
The main event of each edition of Jaques is the SPOTLIGHT STORY, a deeply researched and reported piece digging into some of the biggest questions facing international producers, presenters, creatives, executives and administrators all over the world. If ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS is the overture, the SPOTLIGHT STORY is the full show. It’s market research, analysis, interviews, and insights you won’t find anywhere else.
ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF
The guy behind Jaques is me, Gordon Cox, a veteran theater journalist who’s been covering Broadway and beyond for more than 20 years. I’ve spent the bulk of my career at the showbiz bible Variety, where I’m currently the contributing theater editor. I’m also the host of the Stagecraft podcast, spotlighting lively interviews with the biggest names in the business both onstage and backstage.
I’ve previously written about the international side of the industry in stories like this one and this one. Now, as the American theater business finds itself crunched between rising costs and shifting consumer habits, international has become an increasingly important piece of the theatermaking puzzle—but no one’s really writing regularly about this stuff. That’s where Jaques comes in.
TWO WAYS TO FOLLOW ALONG
Jaques is an independent, subscription newsletter powered by Substack.1 Subscribing is easy: Just click one of the handy orange buttons that pop up at various points around this newsletter, enter your email, and you’re in. Jaques will be delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.
There are two subscription tiers. Here’s what you get with each.
THE FREE SUBSCRIPTION
Free subscribers get access to the first section of Jaques, the ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS: A biweekly digest of theater industry news, notes and headlines from around the world. It’s a quick and convenient way to keep your global perspective up-to-date.
THE PAID SUBSCRIPTION
Paid subscribers not only get those ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS, but they also receive the biweekly SPOTLIGHT STORY. These are the deep-dives into topics and trends that you won’t find anywhere else, with all the cool details and surprising insights that will intrigue and inform anyone who works in the industry—and anyone who, like me, loves exploring all the ways art, business and cultures collide. Each SPOTLIGHT STORY is a labor-intensive undertaking heavy on research, reporting, forging connections and finding experts. That’s why it’s the part I’m asking readers to pay for. A paid subscription gets you the full Jaques, and it’s also the most meaningful way to support this project and help Jaques thrive.
In addition, paid subscribers get access to the complete archive of previous editions of Jaques, which will live here.
Interested? Click this!
I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
With all that as my starting point, I’m betting Jaques will change and evolve as it grows and in response to feedback from readers like you. So as you’re reading along: Tell me what you think! What do you like? What do you want to see more of—or less of? Got a tip or a story idea? Drop me a line at jaques@gordonbcox.com.
If you’d like to support Jaques beyond subscribing: Please tell people about it! Know someone who’d love Jaques? Recommend it to them with this button here:
Oh, and one last thing:
IT’S PRONOUNCED ‘JAY-KWEEZ’
Yep, I’m serious. The name of this newsletter is spelled “Jaques” and pronounced “‘JAY-kweez.”
I’m guessing that if you’re the kind of person who’s into a newsletter about international theater, then you might already know who Jaques is. But in case you skipped that day in Shakespeare 101: Jaques is the character in As You Like It who has the soliloquy that begins, “All the world’s a stage…”
(Why does the word Jaques have two syllables, and why on earth is it pronounced “JAY-kweez”? The short answer: Scansion. The longer answer is touched on here, and you can learn even more about original Shakespearean pronunciation here.)
AND THAT’S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
For now. Let’s see how this thing develops.
I can’t wait to go on this ride, and it’s a pleasure and a privilege to have you join me.
You don’t need to know anything about Substack to read Jaques. But if you’re curious about it and/or the attractive app on which you can read this and other newsletters from writers you like, learn more here.