When curtain falls on theatrical productions, JC resident's ode app is there to mark, review them
And also connect over them
By Chilltown Blues
Milena Mass has seen all that goes into a theatrical production from start to finish — oftentimes with no ode, so to speak, to show for it when all is said and done, so the JC resident decided to make a platform for that herself.
“The Off-Off-Broadway scene is one I know and love,” Mass told Chilltown Blues. “I’m a founding member (now managing director) of Bluebird Theatre Company, a nonprofit established in 2019. I’ve spent years seeing how much work goes into small and independent productions, and then how quickly the record of that work can disappear once the run is over and the scramble begins all over again for every grant application, show pitch, and next production.
“Unless there was formal press coverage, there often isn’t much left that reflects how the work actually reached people,” Mass said. “And formal critics and reviewers naturally don’t have the bandwidth to get to every show they’re sent a comp ticket for in a small black box, without A-list actors or large institutional backing.”
All this, Mass pointed out, in the age of logging and stats.
“We have Goodreads, Letterboxd, rings and wearables to track every movement, and so many other tools that let us keep a record of anything we read, watch, do, and experience,” Mass said. “Combining those two points, creating ode became a way to give theatre audiences a place to keep their own record of what they’ve seen, while also giving theatre-makers a free resource to hold onto that response and use it for good.”
“If someone is putting up a show and there is basic public information available — title, dates, location, company/artist info where applicable — they’re encouraged to find a home on ode.” - Milena Mass, ode founder
On ode — available via iOS on the App Store directly or via https://joinode.art as of December — audiences can log the shows they’ve attended, rate them and write “odes,” make lists, and find new shows through searching and social activity.
