Breaching the Fourth Wall

Amidst the many, many blogs of amateur theatre critics online (and trust me there are many, covering the full spectrum of level of interest and quality), Violet Vixen stands out as a entertaining an informative read. Violet Vixen’s self titled blog is a mix of Los Angeles performance related analysis and reviews with the occasional commentary of films, television and current events, with a particular focus on queer theatre and those issues that most directly effect the gay community. A Los Angeles based graduate student with an affinity for theatre and performance art, Vixen’s post are a mix of informal familiarity, wit, and personal anecdote.

The front page of Vixen’s blog create the identity of a progressive thinker and a taste for the eccentric. Her blogroll includes site like A Daily Dose of Queer and Neil Gaiman’s Journal, neither of which are sites that would be considered mainstream culture.

Upon my first view of her site, the inconsistency of post topics of Vixen’s site turned me off. Not someone well versed in blogs, I like the more streamlined content found in print materials. Yet after my initial negative reaction to fluidity of subject matter, I found the potpourri of topics to be a healthy remedy an attention span I might describe as lacking. The variety of Vixen’s discussion ensured when my interest wanes from a particular post, I know the next one will bring a slight change of pace that may grasp my interest.  Additionally, each post brings a new surprise as your are never quite sure about what the next post will entail.

Not that Vixen’s posts are boring.  Her greatest strength is her ability to catch my attention within the first sentence of her posts.  I enjoyed the opening to her most recent post, What’s a Girl to Do? , which begins with the punch, “What do you do when a friend writes to say that there’s a fabulous queer femme performance artist you don’t know about who wants to perform in LA?” Not a dilemma I face too frequently, the question leaves me wanting to know more.   Many of her posts open similarly, piquing enough interest right away to keep me reading.

Violet Vixen successfully creates a memorable blog, most noticeably by making the connection between her name and the layout’s raging fuchsia color scheme. Although the design of Vixen’s site may visually support her two sentence identification as a Los Angeles based lesbian theatre student and aficionado, the onslaught of pink upon the entrance to her main page undercuts her credibility. Perhaps I am conditioned to appreciate sleek, simple designs and associate them with intellectual authority, but appreciating someone’s text, no matter how well written or insightful, is difficult to take seriously when confronted with a wall of text I most quickly associate with packaging for a Barbie Doll.

All in all a well done site with engaging writing created by a memorable persona.  Although Vixen may not be an “authority” she draws readers in with her well developed identity and entertaining reads.