[NEohioPAL] We Are All Critics...And That's OK

[Noah Budin]

  RE: An Open Letter To Critics, Reviewers, et al. (Steve Wojtas)
   
  The actor's job is to be the actor. The director's job is to be the director. The costume designer's job is to design costumes. The grip's job is to hold the cable. The musician's job is to play the music. 
   
  And the critic's job is to sit in judgment.
   
  The jobs of the actors, producers, directors, designers, lighters, musicians, etc. is to entertain us, the audience. Our job is to decide if we are entertained.
   
  You're right: you are a thinking man. We are thinking human beings. We are all critics.
   
  Have you ever been to a restaurant and then recommended that restaurant to someone because you had a good meal? Or maybe you've told someone not to go because the service was lousy. Have you studied the culinary arts? Are you a chef. Have you worked 12 hour days in the kitchen, learning to grip a knife properly, or the difference between broiling and braising, or what a scant teaspoon is, or the difference between baking powder and baking soda and how each has a different chemical reaction? Have you made a career of taking reservations, being on your feet for 12 hours, timing your courses? Most of us haven't. But we all eat. And we all have different opinions about what we eat and how it's delivered to us. 
   
  I'm willing to bet that you've been to a show and then given your opinion about the show to a friend or acquaintance. If you have, you're a critic. And, yes, your opinion does matter. And so does mine. And so does the guy's who doesn't know a scrim form a script.
   
  (I know I've sat on my couch, with a bowl of ice cream in my hand, wearing high-top sneakers so I don't twist an ankle walking to the bathroom, watching the Winter Olympics and said out loud in disgust, "did you see how she missed that triple axle camel spinny thing?! How could she do that?!")
   
  I'm also willing to bet that you definitely think your opinion matters because you took the time to write that letter and give your opinion.
   
  All of our opinions matter. The critics that you read in the papers or on line are the ones who happened to get a job being a critic. Someone wanted them to write for the masses. Being a "thinking man" you have the right to agree with, disagree with or not even read the reviews.
   
  (And have you had to answer to an editor and publisher, write under a deadline, understand the journalistic process, know the rules of grammar, know the difference between irony and satire and know when to employ them and...?)
   
  I, for one, don't need to know or care if the actor on stage divided his or her scenes in to beats or underlined important words or wrote notes in the margins or wrote a 37 page biography of the character from birth through the moment before the curtain goes up or rehearsed for twenty weeks or twenty minutes or prefers Stanislavsky to Uta Hagen or Dustin Hoffman to Laurence Olivier or Adam Sandler; all I need to know is whether I like the performance. And whether I like or dislike the performance doesn't mean I don't respect the work.
   
  No matter what the art or discipline, the finished product is out there for us to judge, and it's all subjective. And that's the whole point. The art exists for us and we are there to judge it.
   
  We are all critics. That's our job. Our opinions matter. And sometimes we get to express our opinions to a large mass of people. 
   
  By the way, never eat at Dustin Hoffman's house. I hear his tar-tare's tough and his crepes are crappy. What...? I can't give my opinion?

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