February 15, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Here’s a switch: a Hill theater director reviews the reviewers
by YAGA BRADY

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, at The Stagecrafters, was translated and directed by Yaga Brady. Seen here are Lavinia DeCastro and Pierlisa Chiodo-Steo in this 2006 production.

If you are part of the theater — as an actor, director, set creator — and, by definition, rely for much of your well-being on the loud applause of a crowd that has paid to see your work, you will sooner or later develop a dependency on and an anxiety about the reaction of theatrical reviewers to what you do. Oh ye mighty reviewers! Oh how miserable and frustrated you can make all those dedicated theater people! And how much rage you can arouse! Just think, recently on an online forum sponsored by The Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia there appeared an extended and turbulent exchange among various members of the local theater community concerning theater reviews in which one of the milder names thrown at a certain local critic was “a biased, biting bitch.” Oh, my …!

No, I could have never stooped to such words myself. Neither have I ever shared the views such as the one describing theater criticism as “venom from contented rattlesnakes” or the one calling a drama critic “a newspaperman whose sweetheart must have run away with an actor.” As a matter of fact, many a time I have referred to the authors of specific reviews as “perceptive,” “knowledgeable” and even “intelligent.” And in instances when my opinions considerably diverged from theirs, I would just shrug my shoulders philosophically and mutter some general comment about the low level of people’s writing abilities or their lack of understanding of the theater.

When asked not long ago to characterize the ideal theater reviewer, I came up with the following, for starters anyway (all flippancy aside this time): He (or she) should

•love the theater and be an avid theater-goer.

•have a good background knowledge of theater arts and dramatic literature.

•always do his/her homework before seeing the show to be reviewed

•be capable of making a judgment whether or not what he/she sees is good theater

•clearly separate in his/her review a judgment on the story/play from that on this particular viewed stage production

•write clearly, to the point, using correct vocabulary and grammar.

•never disclose too many details of the plot and the play’s ending.

•criticize, if necessary, but without resorting to personal stabs.

Now, a few words about reviewers and The Stagecrafters, that place which has been the center of my personal theater activities for the last 25 years. Well, with various aspects of our productions having been so often either ignored or seriously misrepresented by critics, I would certainly not describe most of the reviews of The Stagecrafters’ shows as ideally rendered. Yet, at the same time it would be untrue to say that our theater has been treated shabbily. We have received many words of appreciation from our reviewers, a good deal of generous and, I assume, sincere praise, and plenty of recommendation for the public to come and see us, for all of which we feel grateful.

You see, The Stagecrafters is a theater of modest size, with a modest budget and the work of volunteers at its core, which because of that predicament is occasionally dismissed by some as not quite worthy of public attention. And, as a further consequence of that situation, our theater is not reviewed as much as are certain Center City biggies or theaters that pay their actors wages.

Yet, this little theater in the almost 80 years of its existence has created a multitude of the most ambitious and theatrically polished productions that one could find anywhere. Therefore, for us any good publicity generated by reviewers is of particularly great importance.

There is also another aspect of being reviewed as it applies to The Stagecrafters: that our reviewers should judge us always by the same criteria and standards as they would any other theater, our predominantly volunteer status notwithstanding.

When the critics find us lacking, we don’t want them to dismiss that fact with “it’s just what you’d expect from that kind of community theater” or “out of politeness” not mention said fact at all. Or when they like us, we don’t want to be reviewed as “quite good, considering who they are.”

The Stagecrafters strives to do the best theater that there is, and accordingly, puts a huge amount of time and effort into what it does; and that is what we would like to be understood by our reviewers, and audiences, of course.

For reviewing purposes, making a distinction between theatrical productions created predominantly by volunteers and those by individuals trying to make a living out of the theater is actually quite misleading, since each of the two groups represents a very large spectrum, often overlapping.

And the factors relating to pure talent and artistic preparedness in the American theater today are so strongly impinged upon by all-powerful economics and various other outside pressures, that deciding on the quality of any show just on the basis of the outer label that the creators of the show wear is just not right.

By the way, most of our actors actually hold degrees in theater and/or have considerable theater experience behind them. Well, this all actually could serve as the topic for another full article, or two. For now, though, please don’t think of us, The Stagecrafters, as “community,” “amateur” or “volunteer;” think simply “theater.”

Yaga Brady studied theater in her native Warsaw, Poland. Now a resident of Chestnut Hill, she has directed many productions for The Stagecrafters over the past quarter-century.