In my days as an actor and performance artist, I got some great reviews in the press and I got some horrible reviews. Never did it occur to me to write a letter to someone who wrote me a bad review.
In my years as a writer for Intermission Magazine, I covered tons of professional theatre and not once did a single professional actor write me a nasty letter because I wrote them an unfavorable review.
My first assignment as a theatre reveiwer for KDHX FM88 was a community theatre production. I wrote this review and recieved this letter from one of the actors:
One of the lines in The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged)
is “Brian, this is really more about you than it is about Jacob, isn’t it?”.Unfortunately, the same may summarize your review. While you are certainly welcome to report your own reaction to the play, it seems at the very least disingenuous to fail to mention that you may have been the only person in the room who didn’t laugh (or you were at least in a very small minority). This gives a very distorted view of the audience response. Also, your “direct quote” of the Peter Gabriel joke is so markedly different from the actual lines the I wonder just what you were hearing while you were there.
If you are a cynical bastard whose idea of fun is ignoring others’ capacity to enjoy a lighthearted approach to a serious subject, then this may be the kind of review for you. But if you want a less narrow-minded and more advanced report, you may want to look elsewhere.
Steve Franklin
At this point I’d like to say, for the record, that Steve Franklin is probably in his 50s and, according to his bio, is a practicing psychotherapist.
My editor responded to me with this:
About the only thing you might want to take away from this is that, in all fairness, if the audience is obviously enjoying a show a lot more (or a lot less) than you, it should probably
be mentioned. I always make a point of doing that myself.
This is however in direct contradiction to the guidelines he sent me when he gave me the assignment, in which he said to “own your opinions, do not say things such as ‘the audience felt that…’ or ‘the audience seemed to enjoy…'”
Anyway, I just think it’s funny.
KDHX
KDHX can kiss my ass…I used to swear by that station and now it just makes me swear…the people who run the place are _____________ and ___________ and they drive me __________ a ________________ ____.
I miss what they were before Bev made herself Supreme Emperor…
Re: KDHX
I actually kinda respect Bev for bringing the joint into the 21th century. I don’t know her personally but I know a lot of people who have big problems with her.
I’m just using KDHX to get in on DHTV anyway.
Re: KDHX
I don’t like Slash & Burn types. Every person I love and respect at KDHX has been seriously burned by Bev. You should totally get on DHTV. You are attractive and intelligent enough to do well on TV.
Poor sport much???
Good GOB… what a whiny little pantywaist!
I dunno… the way I see it…
I have seen better at My Kids’ schools… although, I still had a wonderful evening anyway! ;-D
And yeah, really, it’s your review. Your Review. In which you are/should be free to express your own & very valid opinions.
He needs to learn how to be accepting of opinions that don’t necessarily jive with what he wants to hear or get the hell out of theater.
Maybe he could take his ball &/or the rotten egg stuck up his butt & go home.
Hmmm…. I hope that all made sense… I am on my 9th workday in a row & in the middle of my free time before the 2nd half of my workday (9am-3 & then back for 6-9pm)resumes. So maybe I’m more aggro than I normally would be! ;-D
Eeeeeep! Time to get back to work & save the world one haircut at a time! 😀
Re: KDHX
Wow, thanks.
Re: Poor sport much???
Yeah, and he’s a psycho therapist???
I also neglected to mention in my review that everyone in the row in front of us left during intermission.
Re: Poor sport much???
LOL
Emphasis on the “psycho”! ;-D
Yeah, now that you mention it… they did leave didn’t they? I had totally forgotten! I must have been mesmerized by the abundance of queso flowing freely around me! Heheheheheeee
I want to find the fucker and piss on him!