April 6, 2006 Issue                                               

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

We did not hunt for Hunter
How did we discover community theater reviewer?
by LEN LEAR

Former Chestnut Hill resident Hugh Hunter had one of the most unusual hobbies imaginable. He wrote theater reviews for his own amusement, not for newspapers.

Over the years the Local has had many freelancers doing reviews of The Stagecrafters’ productions (Chestnut Hill’s 75-year-old community theater) as well as those of other community theaters in our circulation area. Some readers might have wondered who these reviewers are and where the newspaper finds them. You might be surprised at the answer. Let’s just say our quest for reviewers is not as exhaustive as the search for a new U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

For example, about two years ago I received an unsolicited call from a Fox Chase resident named Hugh Hunter who had a government job in City Hall. “I used to live in Chestnut Hill, so I know you run theater reviews,” he said. “I go to the theater a lot in center city and write reviews, and I’d like to know if you would be interested in running my reviews.”

“We already have someone who has been reviewing center city shows for years,” I replied, “but since you took the time to call, I would be interested to know more about your reviews. Do you write them for another newspaper or magazine or web site?”

“No. I don’t. They haven’t appeared anywhere. That’s why I’m calling you.”

“Let me make sure I understand this. Are you saying that you go to the theater and you buy the tickets and you take notes and then write a review after you get home but that this review does not appear anywhere but in your house?”

“That’s right.”

“But why do you write them if you know they will not appear anywhere?”

“I just love the theater, and writing the reviews makes me think about the plays and what they mean. It helps me get a lot more out of the play ... Finally, I thought it would be even better if they could get into a newspaper and other people could read them.”

“Wow, this is amazing. I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you e-mail me two of your reviews, and if they’re decent, I will find a way to use some of your stuff, even if you have to go to a theater nobody ever heard of. I have never heard of someone writing reviews just for himself before. It’s bizarre; I have to find a payoff for you somehow.”

Hugh proceeded to e-mail me two reviews. The first thing that struck me, even before I read them, was their almost interminable length. I found out from the computer that each one was about 2,500 words, more than three times longer than our average theater review.

So I called Hunter and said, “Hugh, you are unbelievable. But this is not the New Yorker magazine. Your reviews are good, but you would have to make them much, more shorter or else allow me to cut them drastically before I could run one.”

“That’s OK with me.”

I proceeded to ask Hugh to review a play at a closet-sized downtown theater that we had never written about before. I really did not think many readers of the Local would ever consider going to this particular theater, but I wanted Hugh to get his name in print.

Hugh proceeded to go to the theater and turned in a review that was about half his previous length, which was still way too long. I cut a lot out of it and ran the review. Hugh did not seem to be bothered in the least by the cuts, and he was anxious to do another one. The next one (after several weeks had gone by) was about 700 words, which was just right.

After a couple more months went by, my community theater reviewer at the time, Amelia Friedman (who was, in my opinion, the best we had ever had), gave birth to a daughter and said she could not continue writing reviews unless she was reimbursed for baby-sitting fees in addition to her payment for the articles. I was not able to secure the extra money for Amelia, so she split.

I tried two other community theater reviewers after that. One was quite good, I thought, but he failed to show up at a Germantown production he had promised to review, and he never called me or anyone at the theater to say he would not be there. That was his demise, theatrically speaking. The other prospective reviewer often had other things she would rather do, like wash her hair, than go to community theater, so that was it for her.

Thus, I called Hugh Hunter and asked if he would like to give it a try. Of course, he said yes and did not have to be pointed in the right direction. For about two years now, Hugh has reviewed every community theater production in the area. He does show up for the plays, and he does e-mail his reviews faithfully on Mondays by deadline. That’s just as important to me as turning out brilliant prose.

I must admit that one local director has not been too crazy about Hugh’s work, even when his reviews have been favorable. “What are his qualifications?” she asked. I explained that he loves the theater, seems to be knowledgeable, writes reasonably well and always meets his deadlines.

At that point I did not even know if Hugh had ever acted in plays or directed plays. Would his reviews be more insightful if he had that hands-on experience? I suppose so, but I am not sure. Most well known sportswriters have never been very good athletes; most movie reviewers never appeared in a movie or had anything to do with making one; most restaurant writers (like myself) have never been a chef or run a restaurant; most theater reviewers have little or no actual experience in the theater; many people who have reviewed books have never written a book themselves. There is no certification of reviewers or critics in the news media in this country, unlike, say, surgeons or architects. Reviewers may hurt someone’s feelings, but they rarely kill someone or cause a building to fall down.

Editors, particularly those at small community newspapers, love freelancers who are reliable, accessible, pleasant, meet deadlines, get their facts straight, are not whiny and write half-decent prose. In my opinion, Hugh Hunter meets all of these criteria, so I consider myself lucky that he called out of the blue two years ago. The odds that a previously non-published “reviewer” could make a cold call to any newspaper, regardless of size, and wind up as a regular reviewer are probably 10,000 to one. But Hugh has proven that it is possible to beat even impossible odds.