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When she's not portraying Caroline on Something to Be Desired, Ann Turiano works in Pittsburgh's theatre and film community.

Yesterday, she suggested we attend a writing workshop conducted by Michele Lowe, a playwright whose most recent work, Mezzulah, 1946, will make its world premiere this month as part of the Pittsburgh City Theatre's New American Trio series of brand new works by American playwrights.

Considering I'm in the midst of writing and refurbishing STBD, this suggestion made sense.

You're Only Ever Where You Are

Lowe's workshop was about the power of "place" in a story -- specifically, how the WHERE of a story impacts the choices made by the characters within. Language, colors, textures -- all of these elements, which provide the backgrounds and settings that inform the characters' identities and create their backstories that directly affect their actions in the present -- it's all a product of the immediate environment.

That resonated with me because STBD is a story about Pittsburgh.

All along, we've never once denied that we're a Pittsburgh production. We've never pretended that the city depicted in the episodes is really New York or Chicago. We're proud to be from Pittsburgh, because we feel that sharing our view of the city with the outside world may help a larger audience come to appreciate what Pittsburgh has to offer. And, living here, we realize that this is a town with a serious identity crisis, so seeing itself dissected -- sometimes positively, sometimes constructively -- might help our fellow Pittsburghers feel proud of where they come from.

But how does being from Pittsburgh actually affect the CHARACTERS?

City as State (of Mind)

Would Caroline and Leo make the same choices they do now if they were from, say, Salt Lake City? Or Maine?

How do local institutions like the Steelers, Pirates and Penguins, Heinz and Primanti Bros., our triangular downtown, our numerous traffic tunnels and our struggle to move beyond a steel-based economy affect the characters' identities and psyches?

Where are the "yinzers" in our cast, the people who speak with that definitive Pittsburgh diction and use our regional dialect (like "slippy," "lurpy" and "redd up")?

As our recent audience survey showed, the bulk of our audience is (or once was) local, and the majority of that audience wants to see MORE Pittsburgh on the show. How can we interweave the city more organically into the story?

Can STBD become a love letter to Pittsburgh, much the same way as Sex & the City became a cultural touchstone for New Yorkers?

I believe so. All we have to do now is figure out HOW to best utilize the WHERE.

STBD Hiatus and Fan Survey Results

As you may have noticed, there's no new STBD episode this week. That's because we're on hiatus for the next 6 weeks, to get ahead on production once again.

As I'd mentioned in a few recent posts, creating STBD is a logistical tightrope, and it's only negotiable when we have an archive of footage to edit. Since December, our archive has been depleted, meaning we've been creating episodes on a week-by-week basis. This means we're limited to the availaibility of the actors in question, and if someone's busy for a week, that could delay an entire storyline and leave the audience hanging.

That type of production isn't fair to the audience OR the cast, so we're taking steps to remedy it. While we're on hiatus, we'll also be tinkering with the website and adding a few other bells and whistles. We'll return with all new episodes on March 26, so mark your calendar.

In the meantime, check back to our homepage every Monday for something new to keep you in the STBD mood. For example:

STBD Fan Survey Results

This past week, we issued our first STBD fan survey. The results can be found below, followed by a summary of what we think these numbers mean.

#1: How long have you been watching STBD?

Since Season One: 44%
Since Season Four: 27%
Since Season Three: 19%

#2: Might we ask, how old are you?

18-25: 44%
26-35: 44%
36+: 12%

#3: Where do you live?

57% Currently live in Pittsburgh
30% American who's never lived in Pittsburgh
11% Ex-Pittsburgher now living elsewhere

#4: How did you first hear about STBD?

36% Someone on the show told me about it
26% Other (more below)
23% Stumbled across it by accident

Other responses include:

- A friend told me (4 votes)
- Author Max Barry's website / email (2 votes)
- Through a featured artist (2 votes)
- Local paper / magazine articles (2 votes)
- PUMP, Pittsburgh Dish blog, The Burgh Blog, Pop City, Mentally Incontinent, etc. (1 vote each)
- "searched pittsburgh on youtube trying to footage from after the superbowl last year"

#5 How often do you watch STBD?

30% Every Monday
25% Every week, at some point
19% Every few episodes (backlog buildup)
18% Peek in once in awhile

Other responses include:

- "I use to watch but lost interest after Jack Boyd left and the focus shifted to Caroline, Dean, etc."

#6 HOW do you watch STBD?

73% SomethingToBeDesired.com / .tv
11% iTunes
10% MySpace bulletins

#7 Who are your 4 favorite STBD characters?

Since this type of question can easily become an ego-shattering popularity contest for the folks who live and die by the implications of every vote, we'll spare you the individual voting percentages. Instead, we've divided the characters into 4 "levels" of audience response.

LEVEL ONE

Caroline, Dierdre, Leo - each received at least 60% of the total possible vote

LEVEL TWO

Rich - received 25% of the total possible vote

LEVEL THREE

Chloe, Dex, Liz, Lloyd, Tim, Todd - each received at least 15% of the total possible vote

LEVEL FOUR

The remaining characters each received less than 15% of the total possible vote

Other responses include:

- 8 for Dean
- 8 for Jack
- 2 for Hailey (who was errantly left off the actual ballot)
- 2 for Rob Sharp
- 1 for Alison
- 1 for Jessie
- 1 for Karen
- 1 for the Zombie characters (!)
- "The majority of the new characters are weak, very thin, almost transparent."

#8: Which STBD storyline has been your favorite (so far)?

23% Jack Boyd's visit (Season One)
16% Dean and Caroline's relationship (Season Three)
15% The rise and fall of WANT (All seasons)
14% Caroline / Lloyd / Liz (Season Four)
14% Dierdre / Dex / Liz (Season Four)

Other responses include:

- "Anything to do with rich"
- "Anything to do with tim"
- "Dean's struggle with his sanity and job. Dean added so much more to this show. He completed the circle."

#9 What would you like to see MORE of on STBD?

45% More Pittsburgh locations
33% More sexuality
28% More Pittsburgh issues
26% More music
25% Improved audio

Other responses include:

- Longer episodes (2 votes)
- More character development (2 votes)
- Less / quieter background music (2 votes)
- "Better direction. This show is shot horribly. Terrible edits, terrible shot selection. Two: better color balance, a lot of the time the colors are too rich and faces are washed out."
- "More Tim. While it's not a man-crush or anything, but he's hilariously pathetic in every scene he's in."
- "used to be able to watch it full screen on my puter. I miss that"
- "MORE BRENT"
- "More of that which is to be desired: a GOOD plot. I'm really glad you are doing this survey because I feel like people LIE to you and the cast members every week. I wouldn't watch if I didn't HAVE TO!"

#10: What would you like to see LESS of on STBD?

(Interestingly, this was also the most-skipped question, with over 33% NOT responding)

32% Ditch the recaps at the beginning of the episodes
26% Other
21% Shorten the title sequence

Other responses include:

- "Nothing, like it all" (6 votes)
- "Not safe for work language" (2 votes)
- "Jazz bass loop used throughout season 3 and 4. Time to put it to rest."
- "Non plot driven storylines"
- "Less random cast members. Less melodrama."
- "The less interesting story lines (helps a lot I know!)"
- "Less talking heads. Sometimes the endless conversing does nothing to advance the story! The characters are just there... frail and dainty. Make them more interesting."
- "Tone down the dude who owns the magazine. Too unbelievable."
- "Less fighting over boys. Less TRITE sexual humor. It's agony for intellectual people to watch."

WHAT THIS TELLS US:

1) Most of our audience has watched the entirety of STBD since Season One
2) Most of our audience has come to us through the direct promotional efforts of the cast / crew
3) Every time STBD is mentioned elsewhere, we pick up new fans
4) Our audience is almost entirely within the 18-35 range
5) An overwhelming majority of viewers still watch new episodes directly from our homepage
6) Caroline, Dierdre and Leo continue to be the characters the bulk of the audience associates itself with. This may be because they're also the three longest-running characters on the show, or because most storylines involve them.
7) Very few of the more recently-introduced characters are separating themselves from the pack in the minds of the audience -- especially in comparison to Jack and Dean.
8) The audience wants to see more Pittsburgh -- both locations and issues -- although the audience is predominantly local to begin with. Still, no one said "LESS Pittsburgh"...
9) Everyone has their own opinion about music (more / less) and audio quality, and a lot of that is subjective based upon their own tastes or their individual computer playback.
10) More sexuality? What a shock...

SUMMARY:

In the end, I come away with two impressions and one obvious message from the audience:

A) A LOT of people REALLY LIKE what we've done / are doing.
B) The people who don't like what we're doing REALLY DON'T LIKE it.
C) EVERYONE would like a stronger plot, which would help better define the characters.

To that end, I consider this survey a huge success. Not only did it confirm some suspicions I already had about the show and the way the audience perceives it, but it pointed out a few pros and cons I wouldn't have otherwise taken into consideration.

We'll be using this feedback as a guide to help us shape the next arm of STBD episodes. Didn't register your voice through the poll? Leave a comment, join the forum or email jkownacki at somethingtobedesired dot com. Conversation is a good thing!