[NEohioPAL]Reply to Roy Berko's review of SPAWN OF THE PETROLSEXUALS

[csimon at convergence-continuum.org]

I have never before written to a reviewer, neither privately nor publicly,
in response to a negative review.  However, since he has challenged me to
do so in his recent review of SPAWN OF THE PETROLSEXUALS. (“The question
that Artistic Director Clyde Simon has to answer is, ‘why did you chose to
stage this script?’“), I will do so.
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Dear Mr. Berko,

The answer is to be found in convergence-continuum’s Artistic Mission
statement.  You can go to http://www.convergence-continuum.org and click
on “About the Company” to find it (and some nifty pix from Petrolsexuals
as well).  It says the following:

[Most theatres are like mirrors, reflecting the familiar.  You go to a
show, you sit, you watch a play, and then you go home.  You watch the
actors from across the chasm of a “fourth wall.”  Everything is nicely
laid out for you as you view what is comfortably, safely beyond the wall,
confident that you will be made, indeed are expected, to understand the
experience in terms of conventional logic.

Aren’t we all tired of that by now?

What if theatre weren’t a mirror reflecting the familiar, but an opening
into unknown territory?  What if there were no fourth wall?  What if,
instead of going to the theatre to watch a play, you crossed the threshold
into the world of the play to experience it?  Theatre that expands the
imagination and extends conventional boundaries of language, structure and
space, and performance that challenges the conventional notions of what
theatre is.  What sort of theatre would this be?

We are convergence-continuum.]

Christopher Johnston’s play, SPAWN OF THE PETROLSEXUALS, and our
production of it, accomplish this mission in spades.  It additionally
realizes our goals to foster the work of  local playwrights and challenge
our company members in artistic development.

I do not begrudge you your opinions.  We just have very different concepts
of what theatre “should be.”  You stated that you “believe theatre should
be purposeful and meaningful.  The author has an obligation to the
audience to present a message in a way that they can reasonably understand
the author’s intent.”  I take great issue with that statement for so many
reasons.  The archaic notion that theatre has to present a purposeful 
“message” which is clearly (and apparently, comfortably) understood, is
crap.  That demeans theatre as an art form, and turns it into an
educational tool at best; propaganda, at worst.

I also vigorously disagree with your notion of “obligation” in this
regard.  Sez who?  I don’t want to go to a play that tells me what I’m
“supposed” to think, or what I should get out of it.  I want to attend
plays that are events, that rouse me to experience a range of human
sensation, and exhilarate me on a gut level living in the moment with
other live human beings.  Being “lost” while in the experience is not a
bad thing.  Quite the contrary.  It’s great.  Later on, I can process it
to see what various meanings and ideas I might make of the experience --
not necessarily what I’m “expected” to understand as someone’s “intent.” 
I think about whether I agree or disagree with the points of view that
seemed to be implied in the work.  And why I think that way.  That’s what
I believe living, breathing, live theatre should be doing.  So, that’s
what I strive to produce.  Passionately.

Side note to this response:  While you are certainly entitled to your
opinions, you did your readers a disservice by attempting to bolster your
judgements by projecting them upon other audience members.  This was
unfair, unjustified and inaccurate.  (Isn’t that Fox News new slogan?)  In
my equally subjective opinion,  the audience at the performance you
semi-attended seemed to be pretty absorbed and responsive during the show.
 Having attended the entire performance, I can, however, report that the
ovation at end was both hearty and prolonged.  And the audience lingered. 
Many stayed around after the show talking about it – amongst themselves,
with me, the playwright, and the actors.  This included the gentleman (a
regular patron), to whom you referred in your review, who asked me
(light-heartedly and ironically) before the show whether he “was going to
understand this one.”  You stated that although you “didn’t get a chance
to ask the man after the production about his understanding … the odds are
he was as lost as most of us.” (Most of US??)  Anyway, you were wrong.  He
sought me out afterwards to express his enjoyment, using the phrases
“never a dull moment” and “a wild ride.”
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So, Neohiopalites, come experience this alternately raunchy, irreverent,
creepy, funny, violent and touching wild ride for yourself.  SPAWN OF THE
PETROLSEXUALS, an underground comic by Christopher Johnston runs
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm through August 11 at the Liminis,
2438 Scranton Rd. in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood.  Tickets are only
$12 gen. admission, $9 students/seniors.  Call 216-687-0074 or visit
http://www.convergence-continuum.org for reservations and information.