More Theatricality

After reading your review of The New Theatre’s production of Beau Jest, I have a question and a comment.

What should we expect from reviewers? My understanding of a review’s purpose is to not only offer an emotional reaction and opinion, but objectively critique aesthetics such as design, acting, direction and audience reaction.

A critic is not someone who simply “criticizes,” but a person who studies, analyzes, and then renders a rational judgment of what he/she has seen. Reviewer works in partnership with professionals in the cause of advancing the art form they are working in through reflection and comment A reviewer should assist in widening and deepening the scope of regional theatre.

Good critics should be intelligent, informed, balanced and insightful. Worse critics are ignorant of history and believe that their job is to deliver “zingers.

But in the end, maybe Mark Twain was correct as stated in his autobiography.
“I believe the trade of critic, in literature, music, and drama, is the most degraded of all trades, and has no real value,” “However, let it go. It is the will of God that we must have critics and missionaries and Congressmen and humorists. We must bear the burden.” –

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