About
LA Culture Index is a fully independent news/press platform dedicated to documenting and reviewing live performance across Los Angeles. Coverage spans the full spectrum of live performance, from music to stage to interactive, scripted or otherwise.
An emphasis is placed on equal treatment for events. In other words, a zero-budget improv performance with an audience of ten people and a multi-million dollar opera with a two-week sold-out run can sit next to each other on this website with equal space and prestige. While different expectations will warrant different levels of review and analysis, both are treated with the same baseline respect.
Each production is approached as both a cultural event and a lived event. Formal aspects of reviews may focus on performance, music, design, and staging. However, the experience as a whole is also considered, which leads to consideration of travel, audience experience, venue context, even as granular as “is there a way to beat the line to the bar” or “were there enough convenient bathrooms.” Hopefully, this provides a more thoughtful, informative, and well-rounded guide to events and locations.
LA Culture Index is not meant to be overly promotional, nor overly critical, though personal recommendations and opinions will naturally show through.
Instead, this site is intended to track and evaluate performers, performances, creative teams, and venues to build an evolving index of the fantastic Los Angeles live arts landscape. By connecting productions through shared artists and spaces, the site aims to provide useful context for audiences and meaningful archival visibility for artists.
As the archive grows, LA Culture Index seeks to be your long-term cultural record and recommendation tool, whether you’re a theatergoer seeking recommendations, an artist/company interested in engaged coverage, a venue manager hoping to understand onsite bottlenecks, or even just a general reader curious about the true depths of LA’s performance scene.
LA Culture Index is independently operated by Ethan Hulbert and unaffiliated with any media company, arts organization, venue, or other holding entity. Any financial or other incentives will be disclosed at the top of an article; at this time, no potential conflict of interest situations have occurred. Select articles may be shared with press teams or artists for factual verification only, prior to publication.
If you are an actor or crewmember or someone I have mentioned on this site, and I’ve gotten your details incorrect, please accept my apologies and send me an email so I can correct the mistake. Please let me know if you have additional cast/crew information or context that I’ve overlooked as well.
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