Home
Master Thespian©
Scottsdale, Arizona
Your struggles, as budding stage & screen actors, are also my struggles. I offer never before viewed photos, quotes, memorization tips, scene and character studies, monologues, play outlines, and the "how-to's" and "why to's" of this fascinating art form. This site is not theory, not hearsay, not done for money, but for love and contains a depository of the daily complications, dilemmas, and disappointments I face as a committed, serious, abecedarian actor. |
Plays
Monologues
Acting Books
Shakespeare
|
|
| R e v i e w s |
"To read or not to
read that is the question:
Whether 'tis noble in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them?"
Hamlet: Act III, Scene 1
-
Wow! How closely do those lines describe the dilemma we are faced with when confronted by the option of reading the published reviews of our efforts during production or waiting until the theater has gone dark?
-
And then some of you are thinking, "Why read the review at all. Ever?" I believe you eventually have to read it, or you will be left depending on what another person told you the reviewer wrote. You need to read it for the chance it may just include some piece of information you could actually use
to improve your acting. Or it could confirm your judgments of other aspects
of the play, ie., "I thought that part of the play was plodding too..." Also, you need to read it so you can respond accurately when you are asked about it.
-
We need to keep in mind that the reviewer is just another human out there who also has found a place to publish his thoughts and make his perceptions known to many. He or she, may be absolutely right-on or totally wrong, or somewhere in between. The reviewer is just one person who came to see one performance on one night. That night you may have been 'great' but others may have faltered. You may have faltered that night (me) and others supported you.
The entire cast may have been 'great.' That's one thing that is wonderful, about community theater, anyway. Every night's performance can be and usually is a little different. (The most delightful scene of a recent play I witnessed was when the actress, trying to quickly light 30 candles on a cake without burning her fingers, couldn't do it fast enough, and kept having to shout "Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" While the anxious cast waited unseen out of sight.)
-
I can't answer for you the question of whether to read reviews while you are still in performance. But in my own limited experience I would recommend not to read reviews and as soon as possible advise your fellow actors that you would appreciate them not mentioning, talking about, taping up or otherwise posting notices of 'The Reviews,' whether they are good, bad or ugly.
- Reasons to not read your during production:
- A favorable review could cause you to get a big head and piss off other cast members.
- A good review could cause you to relax and lose your edge.
- A review that just flat ignores your presence might cause you to assume your character is unnecessary, resulting in a flat delivery while you're making grocery lists in your head, scanning the audience for acquaintances and wishing that glass of "whiskey" really was 80 proof.
- Knowledge of a review could cause you to become overly sensitive to the comments of others in the cast.
- Listening to a review might, after weeks of rehearsal and direction, cause you to unilaterally modify your blocking or delivery, astonishing your fellow actors.
- Modifying your performance based on what a reviewer writes, would be like a professional football player obeying the screamed commands of his fans in the stands.
The final call, of course, is yours. However, I recommend to remain ignorant of 'your' reviews until the production has closed.
|
|