Check the details on Out of the Box’s great website.
Poll Results: overall, how do you rate the quality of play-reviewing in your locale?
Not a day goes by without someone, somewhere grinding their axe on a theatre production. This can be in print or more recently, in online criticism. Equally, theatre workers diss the critics, especially when their production has been less than favourably treated.
The issue of the quality of play reviewing is of sufficient interest we would have thought, to garner some commentary. However, this poll on the quality of theatre criticism wasn’t well responded to in terms of numbers, and we wonder whether or not there is a general malaise or simple disinterest (by this small – but niche – readership at least) about the issue. It also opens up another poll which we’ll release soon; this one on what makes for a good piece of theatre criticism. But to the results of this poll …
Clearly the quality of play reviewing varies here in Australia and elsewhere, and the results show this; perhaps this wasn’t a good option to put – seems far too obvious. No respondent thought the overall standard to be ‘Excellent,’ but a quarter of all respondents thought the quality of play reviewing in their locale to be ‘Awful.’
One comment: Pandering, uncritical and written as if the “critic” is looking for friends
Here are the results
Reviews and Reviewers: a poll
UPDATE Nov 2011: Greenroom used to collect reviews into an index at the beginning of our time here i.e., when other groups and companies were not making it quite so easy for people. A couple of years on social media has really taken a grip and it’s not hard to access online versions of play reviews i.e., from those big media companies who bother to publish them on the web as well as from independent arts writers and bloggers. Indeed, there is far more writing about the arts in general now that we have so much free space in cyberspace. The issue of quality? Ah, well, another can of worms there.
Greenroom suggested last year – after the results of a poll on whether or not theatre workers read reviews – that another poll on the quality of theatre reviewing might be in order sometime. Perhaps it’s always time to mull over such a thing – but that time is surely right now at the start of a new theatre season here. Theatre reviewers around the traps have flexed their fingers over keyboards and let rip with their take on the new and older shows like Hamlet and The Little Dog Laughed which have opened this month in Brisbane at the city’s two full-time professional companies. Play reviews posted to blogsites generally allow commentary, and readers – who may or may not have seen the plays being reviewed – are letting rip in return with their opinions on well … just about anything.
Michael Billington (Guardian) and Charles Isherwood (New York Times) – both distinguished reviewers – have also blogged on the business of being a play critic. I particularly like Billington’s little piece from earlier this week on what you need to be a theatre critic. There are four points that he makes, and they’re worth a look – I’ll let you click through and read for yourself. Isherwood, in a Q&A post to his readers puts it this way
Maybe the best analogy is to consider us aesthetic referees – calling ‘em like we see ‘em. That is the ideal anyway. My responsibility is to write honestly, and (I hope) with eloquence and understanding and maybe even passion about what I see.
But, it’s time for that poll. Here’s your chance to say what you think poll-style. It’s open for two weeks, so have your say and share it round. The results will be published here when the poll closes.
And, just in case you didn’t know, Greenroom does its best to gather all reviews into an index here on site. You can find links to online published reviews and blog commentary by clicking our home page calendar during a play’s season; you’ll find links there to all shows entered in the calendar and the reviews we’ve ‘captured.’ Just follow the links to their originating sites. To save you the trouble this time, here they are for La Boite’s Hamlet, and here for Queensland Theatre Company’s The Little Dog Laughed.
World Theatre Day – #wtd10 and Dame Jude Does the Honours
- Image via Wikipedia
You’ve seen the teaser tweets (maybe), or perhaps you’ve heard about it, so here’s a heads-up that World Theatre Day 2010 is now just under 6 weeks away. March 27 is the day on which theatre lovers around the world – companies, groups, and individuals – do something to celebrate or mark the day when theatre is foremost in our minds. It’s a perfect time to start organising what you’re going to do, and to send it through to the blog, or to tweet about it, or send in to the Facebook fan page. You are a fan and following World Theatre Day on Twitter, aren’t you?
One of the traditions is to read the annual address before the curtain, or to pin it up on a company notice-board, or just to read it yourself and let it inspire you and your tribe. The 2010 World Theatre Day address is from Dame Judi Dench. Here it is for you.
There’s lots that you can do on the day … while you’re reading the address from Dame Jude, have a look at the rest of the website and see if any ideas there strike your fancy. Everyone’s madly busy most of the time, so the WTD10 organisers suggest you mark the day by incorporating an acknowledgment as part of your programming or daily routine. What you need to do is let everyone know what you’re up to, promote it in your own community, and then share – images, video, tweets, whatever works for you.
Last year in from Brisbane there were video interviews with cast and audience members at the after-party for That Face (Queensland Theatre Company). 23rd Productions recorded voxpops with their cast and the audience of The Pilloman then playing. XSentertainment on the Sunshine Coast did a flashmob at midday at Sunshine Plaza, and QSE held a free, open rehearsal. Images and videos from events made their way through to the WTD Tumblog and that was only from local celebrations … theatre lovers in the US and the UK, in Brazil and India held parties, rallies, read the address, streamed readings … and … held parties. Seems that’s a great way to do it!
Another thing you can do right now – push this post out to your networks – Facebook, Twitter etc. The more the merrier!
National Play Festival
Check out the many and varied sessions and events held at NPF this week on the NPF website. This one looks to be even better than the last, held in Brisbane in 2008.