Blog it, and they will bitch.
It's amazing how burned up people can get about a blog that twenty people view per day.
I thought it would take a bit longer than this, but the thank you, five backlash has begun. I've been criticized for not being hard-hitting enough in my reviews, even though I've made it clear when I haven't actually seen a show. And I've been chided for daring to mention the possibility of bringing back some sort of award show. Here's what I personally think of theatre awards in this town:
1. If brought back, an awards show would be an event where we could all come together and do the thing we all love to do: talk about theatre.
2. Believe it or not, theatre is a business. And while some of us want to work full-time jobs and do theatre as a hobby, some of us actually want to get paid for it. Being a theatre professional requires building a resume, and building a resume includes quoting reviewers, but shows in this town often don't get any ink. It also includes listing awards. Right now, unless you're an undergraduate at UT or in high school, there aren't any awards to speak of.
3. Yes, awards can be self-serving. So are resumes. So are myspace pages. If there is a way for the Knoxville community of theatre-goers to fairly thank the artists in this town for their work, it does everyone good. Theatre is for the masses. Let the masses tell us how we've done our job. Maybe we could then do better.
On a different tangent, I'm an actor. As much fun as it would be to rip everyone in this town a new asshole on some meaningless blog, it is, in the end, not my pervading style. It shouldn't be any actor's style. Actors shouldn't be professional, semi-professional, or part-time reviewers. It doesn't work. All I really wanted to do here was to create a forum for things to be discussed.
If you want to review shows in depth, please, be my guest. Please send me your name, a summary of your background in theatre, and a sample review to thankyoufive@gmail.com. It would be great to have other people's thoughts and views on this blog. Furthermore, if you have your own blog about Knoxville theatre you would like linked from this site, please send me your information and I will be happy to swap links. The more people that are talking about theatre, the better.
Oh, how heated people can get about the state of theatre in this town. Surely that's a good sign.
I thought it would take a bit longer than this, but the thank you, five backlash has begun. I've been criticized for not being hard-hitting enough in my reviews, even though I've made it clear when I haven't actually seen a show. And I've been chided for daring to mention the possibility of bringing back some sort of award show. Here's what I personally think of theatre awards in this town:
1. If brought back, an awards show would be an event where we could all come together and do the thing we all love to do: talk about theatre.
2. Believe it or not, theatre is a business. And while some of us want to work full-time jobs and do theatre as a hobby, some of us actually want to get paid for it. Being a theatre professional requires building a resume, and building a resume includes quoting reviewers, but shows in this town often don't get any ink. It also includes listing awards. Right now, unless you're an undergraduate at UT or in high school, there aren't any awards to speak of.
3. Yes, awards can be self-serving. So are resumes. So are myspace pages. If there is a way for the Knoxville community of theatre-goers to fairly thank the artists in this town for their work, it does everyone good. Theatre is for the masses. Let the masses tell us how we've done our job. Maybe we could then do better.
On a different tangent, I'm an actor. As much fun as it would be to rip everyone in this town a new asshole on some meaningless blog, it is, in the end, not my pervading style. It shouldn't be any actor's style. Actors shouldn't be professional, semi-professional, or part-time reviewers. It doesn't work. All I really wanted to do here was to create a forum for things to be discussed.
If you want to review shows in depth, please, be my guest. Please send me your name, a summary of your background in theatre, and a sample review to thankyoufive@gmail.com. It would be great to have other people's thoughts and views on this blog. Furthermore, if you have your own blog about Knoxville theatre you would like linked from this site, please send me your information and I will be happy to swap links. The more people that are talking about theatre, the better.
Oh, how heated people can get about the state of theatre in this town. Surely that's a good sign.
posted by the badge at 8:22 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I fully agree with needing some actual credentials to fill a resume, and I would be thrilled if there were some type of awards system here in town. For the amount of budding art/theatre groups around here I'm shocked that there no longer is.
"As much fun as it would be to rip everyone in this town a new asshole on some meaningless blog, it is, in the end, not my pervading style."
Exactly. See, that's my job. Unlike actors, writers have that fantastic ability to anger everyone and simply state, as a viable excuse afterward, but I'm a writer!
Writers are fabulous pricks and if you became a fabulous prick I'd have to complain. That'd be stepping on my toes. You can be one or the other, buddy: a fabulous actor or a fabulous prick. (alright, in hollywood you can be both, but not in knoxville!!) Throw the ravenous writers a bone, right?
I think you're doing fabulous with this blog. You enlighten me with theatre. I never came here to be awed with edge gripping reviews. I came here to see what the effervescence was going on with Knoxville theatre. And lo and behold I found it, along with theatre resources in general. (actually, the original reason why I came here was because "oh, look! his blog! oh! look! theatre!" I never claimed to have a complex motive)
Eh, but what can I say about feedback? The fact that people are at odds with what you're saying or doing means they're paying attention. It also means they care enough to say something about it.
So yay theatre! Yay you! Yay me! Yay this bottle of Propel water! The world is sunny again!
Would you really feel comfy putting a knox award on your NY resume?
When I'm at the point when I can look down at my resume and call it an actual "NY resume," it is more than likely that there will be no Knoxville awards listed on it. But I am not at that point. Would I put a Knoxville award on my resume for grad school? Yes. On a non-theatre job application? Yes. And would I hang it on my wall? Yep.
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