As L.A. becomes the center of the theater universe this week, some 40 top flight arts reporters and critics have been brought together by the USC Annenberg School of Journalism to create an innovative "pop-up news room" to provide blanket coverage. Engine28.com, indeed, literally popped up like a newborn mushroom, appearing on the web and providing a platform for the company of theater journalists on which to spin out perhaps hundreds of stories.

Edited by veteran critic and writer Jeff Weinstein and overseen by Annenberg Professor Sasha Anawalt, Engine28 does what no other publication would dare. It has set its own date for closure.  The site is designed to be live only between June 15 and June 20.  And those dates are no accident. 

During that six day period, Los Angeles is hosting the Hollywood Fringe Festival, the RADAR L.A. Festival and the National Asian American Theater Conference and Festival.  More than 1000 major theater figures will be attending and performing and Engine28 has the simple goal of covering as much of the action as possible.

The concept of a pop-up news room is to leverage the strengths of various journalists who would not otherwise be in the same venue by merging their content on the same site. The journalism experiment is part of USC Annenberg's seventh NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater. 

See the whole site here.