{"id":7639,"date":"2008-01-23T12:59:36","date_gmt":"2008-01-23T17:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=7639"},"modified":"2010-07-18T19:13:36","modified_gmt":"2010-07-18T23:13:36","slug":"reviewing-community-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=7639","title":{"rendered":"Reviewing Community Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"commtheatre.jpg\"<\/p>\n

For some reason, this marvelous essay by John Barry<\/a>, a freelance writer in Baltimore, about reviewing local community theatre has brought tears to my eyes!! But it goes on a journey first – and I found myself laughing out loud, too – in recognition – and appreciation. And by the end, it really packs a punch. Yes, yes, yes.<\/p>\n

And I loved this part, too:<\/p>\n

The people on stage were policemen, computer programmers, starry-eyed sophomores, retired schoolteachers. The plays weren’t classics, but they weren’t exactly cutting-edge: Broadway standbys (Art<\/em>), comic dramas (Fuddy Meers<\/em>), zany madcap farces (Lend Me a Tenor<\/em>!), and musicals, musicals, musicals. And Sondheim.<\/p>\n

My readership changed. I was no longer writing for potential theatergoers, people looking for my advice on whether to shell out for tickets. I wasn’t even being read by the actors in the plays. I was being read by their best friends and close relatives. And they knew who I was. They knew where I lived. And they knew when I screwed up the names: Thanks for the review and glad you found the show enjoyable. Just a couple of little points…The “stern taskmaster” you describe is actually Florindo, played by Chris Hickle.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

hahahahaha God, that is so right ON. But Barry is after a deeper truth, a deeper experience – and it’s (for me) at the moment when he recalls a bad review he got 20 years ago … that I realized: Wow. This essay is not going where I thought it would. Wonderful. (Here’s the link to it again<\/a>) It’s one of the best essays I have read in a long long time.<\/p>\n

Update<\/b>:<\/p>\n

Marisa’s great post<\/a> on this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For some reason, this marvelous essay by John Barry, a freelance writer in Baltimore, about reviewing local community theatre has brought tears to my eyes!! But it goes on a journey first – and I found myself laughing out loud, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7639"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23015,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7639\/revisions\/23015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}