What’s a Critic For?

Last modified on 2012-04-19 21:25:43 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

California is blessed with a plethora of theatre. We have so much theatre that it is probably fair to say that it is literally impossible to see every play produced in Los Angeles or San Francisco. On the average, there are at lest eight shows that open each week in each city. By numbers alone, we are overwhelmed. So how do we decide what to see?

There is no better recommendation for a play than word of mouth. There’s no endorsement that carries more weight than someone you know and trust who has seen a show and tells you that a particular show was a “wow” or a “must see.”  By the same token, if that same person casts a shadow upon a play, we are equally likely to pass.

If we only had a dozen shows to choose from, we could poll our friends, and come to an informed decision about how we wanted to spend our theatre dollar.  But, as mentioned earlier, at any given moment there may be as many as a hundred and fifty different productions performing on any given Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

Traditionally, the second best source of recommendation has been the Theatre Critic. In days gone by, every major newspaper, in fact every newspaper including the penny savers, had theatre critics. Some, such as Clive Barnes in New York, grew to national prominence, and in each major metropolitan area, the crème de la crème would rise to the top, and we depending on the critic, could rapidly identify the shows that would be reasonable bets.

These reviews were not a synopsis of the plays or a testament to how gushy the writer felt after a performance, but these were articulate articles discussing the merits of a piece of work. Criticism based upon an educated understanding of the art form. If a show was recommended, it would help build an audience, or if a show were panned, it could impact how quickly a production closed. In a fashion, it was a knowledgeable referral only removed from word of mouth by the degree of familiarity with the author.

Today, we live in a world where the old saw, “everyone thinks they’re a critic,” has actually come true. Via the web and social media, anyone can now claim to be an authority and voice an opinion, which may impact our theatre choices. Theatres are inundated with “reviewers” for comp tickets, often from reviewers whose only qualification is that they’re too cheap to buy a ticket so they promise to write some complimentary drivel for a free ticket, and their publication is often no more than someone’s blog post. There’s even cases where published newspapers only run a review if the show buys advertising. Sometimes, participants from a production post reviews even before a show opens in the hopes of garnering audiences. Where is the reliability?

The problem is even deeper than that. Recently The Huffington Post, which just received a Pulitzer Prize, thereby legitimatizing them as a serious news outlet, posted a review giving a local production rave reviews. The accolades were so profuse, that one could assume this was fast tracking to Broadway and a world tour. However, what was not noted was that this particular reviewer had zero qualifications other than personal opinion to write about this production. Setting aside the fact that The Huffington Post is known for not paying many of it’s writers anything, and that acceptance of a submission is not based upon merit, but some criteria known only to the editors, this particular review was not only dead wrong, the piece was beyond dreadful, as other reviewers later noted. It turns out the reviewer’s author’s background is in psychology specializing in food disorders.

How then do we discern what to see?  If you are a passionate follower of theatre, you have a pretty good idea of the quality of work you can expect from some theatres.  Perhaps there’s an artist that you follow, or maybe it’s a title that you know or have always wanted to see. The variables that go into picking a play are as different as the people that go to theatre, but the important aspect is that to some degree, and to some predetermined criteria, there is a process of discernment.

However, if you are not a fan of theatre, but an occasional goer, how do you decide what you want to see? You need a reliable source of information, a review, a recommendation, reasonable criticism that helps you decide what you want to see. Where do you go for that?

Traditional news sources are less and less prone to offering Theatre review. Most major papers have reduced their arts sections and staff, if not cutting them entirely. Even arts friendly press is cutting back their theatre departments and reducing the space once dedicated to theatre. This is not due to lack of interest, it is due to lack of financial resources

What should we do? Talk to friends, people who you know to have similar sensibilities to yourself, if they don’t know, perhaps they know someone that does. Here’s an opportunity to really network.  Know that what you read in social media is probably skewed.  Those that rave are likely to have some personal stake, and those that gripe probably have a personal issue. And if you look for online reviews, and that is your sole source of recommendation, get more than one, read a few, look around, there’s plenty. If you find a site, that’s really good, or gives you an amalgamation of reviews that might work as well.

Or learn a little bit yourself.  Investigate.  Figure out why you liked a show, or why you didn’t like a show, apply those standards to the next show you see. Understand that how you feel does not make it a good show, what you take away, hold in you heart and soul does.

In the end, that’s what critics used to do for us, they gave us the insight to see why we feel the way we do about a production. There are still some out there that do that, find them, cherish them, and encourage other’s to do the same.

All This!… For How Much?

Last modified on 2012-04-03 00:28:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Walking into a theatre is always an exciting experience. There’s the anticipation of seeing something new, or if it’s a show we know, seeing a new interpretation. There’s a feeling of comfort, a willingness to be open and be on the receiving end of entertainment, enlightenment and to some degree a sense of awe for the spectacle we are about to see. That’s what is expected of us in the audience. But what of the artists, those who engage themselves and each other to answer our expectations.

First of all, we have to understand that those we see on the stage are not the only artists involved in presenting a show. Long before a single actor sees a script there is a team hard at work making the preparations necessary to bring a play alive on stage.

A writer may spend months, even years, sculpting a phrase so that it means exactly what he/she would like to say. Understanding the nuances of language, giving a character identity and creating a circumstance that will ignite imaginations is not a small task, certainly not one for the faint of heart. Writing is solitary and scary and often produces very little result other than mountains of rejection letters and the lingering questions from family, “when are you gonna get a real job?”

Should a script be selected, either a producer fell in love with the words, a director saw the dream, or a selection committee convinced each other that a piece would satisfy an audience. Whatever the process, a play moves into pre-production.

For that to happen, the producers assemble a creative team comprised of a director and various designers. Each in turn submits their individual vision and interpretation of a work back to the producer, who with the director begins to form the skeleton of the show. And unless the Director is also the producer and the original writer of the play, the melding of vision has already begun.

The collaboration that occurs is in many ways the epitome of the art of theatre. Individual visions bending and melding finally coalesce into a look and feel for the play that will set the stage so a production can be mounted.

Outside of all this offstage work, a cast has been assembled through a series of auditions and callbacks and second callbacks and then the first read through. Many actors, by the time they get to this first read through, have already done research, written their own back-stories and sought out and begun to learn special skills that may be required for a particular production.

Those studies are on top of the countless hours of acting exercises, movement classes, dance lessons, dialect work, sometimes even therapy just to understand a script. Then there are the rehearsals, which involve taking risks and trusting both the director and fellow actors to make the final product something all are proud to present to a paying public.

And still the rest of the creative team scurries and bustles to get the set and scenery right, to pick or build the right costumes, determine the color schemes and choose the music that will help to set just the right tone. Next, a small army goes about to build the set, paint the scenery, hang the lights and make sure that everything works together towards an opening night that can unreservedly entertain its very first audience.

Now this legion of artists, from writer to actor to director and everyone in-between has heard the same question that was posed to the writer: “when are you gonna get a real job?” But the truth is that for most people involved, this is the real job. Anything else they might do is to support this effort, the desire to creatively communicate profound ideas while engaging us with entertainment.

It is often said that acting is the only profession in the world in which the only requirement is to call yourself one. But the truth is that there is earnest study and effort extended by every person who helps produce a play. Because the work that is presented seems so much like the lives we lead, the talent and sacrifice that goes into a production is often ignored. And every person who has watched an actor believes that if they could learn the lines, they could do the job. Better, perhaps!

But the job is more: it is all of the education, it is the training, it is the ongoing study, and it is the willingness to be mocked and humiliated that allows for a dauntless courage and unending belief in the possibilities of what theatre can create.

Why is this important to know? Well, for one, understand that when you get up at the end of a play and rush to beat the crowd, you are dismissing the effort that all these people contributed. Even if you don’t like the result, they tried. So take the moment and applaud. Second, when next you go to get the cheap tickets, the special deal, the half price, know that for all of this effort, for all of this training, most everyone that worked on the show did so for next to nothing. In some cases, it was for nothing but the satisfaction of the work.

That, folks, is passion. It’s commitment and sacrifice, and it deserves more than we give back.  Support the theatre, support the artists and give them there due. Isn’t that what you would expect for yourself?