For the next five days, one of the most massive conglomerations of theater festivals in the world is waylaying in Los Angeles: Radar L.A., Hollywood Fringe, the Asian American Theater Conference and Festival as well as 2011 the Theatre Communications Group (TCG) National Conference. That’s a tall order for arts journalists and editors to try to comprehensively cover at any time, let alone in the middle of the LA Film Fest.

But this year, USC Annenberg has conscripted 40 journalists from all over the country, including Susan Brenneman of the LA Times, Rebecca Haithcoat of LA Weekly, Edward Lifson, formerly of NPR, Steven Leigh Morris, critic-at-large for the LA Weekly and Laurie Ochoa, co-founder of Slake, to cover the madness. With former Philadelphia Inquirer arts editor Jeff Weinstein at the helm, the site, called Engine28.com, will serve as a five-day “pop-up newsroom” to cover as much of the theater bonanza as possible.

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Gustavo Turner will be stepping down as music editor of the LA Weekly on May 20th. He is not, however, falling off the masthead. Turner will stay with the paper as a contributing writer. Assistant music editor Rebecca Haithcoat will become acting music editor once Turner retires the post.

Gustavo Turner with David Lynch. Photo by Sean Teegarden.

Turner’s email to colleagues is after the jump:

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