[NEohioPAL] An Open Letter To Critics, Reviewers, et al. (Steve Wojtas)

[music darrell]

Steve,
   
  The minute you say "aesthetically pleasing to the audience..." you contradict your entire argument; at which point going on and on about all the technical aspects of this discipline or that is merely self- absorbed.  Am I somehow not allowed to think and say that one's art is worthless just because he or she spent long hours blah, blah, blah.....?  If people (read here 'the audience') don't like my art, I'm ok with that. You've shown you like a good cliche- your whole rant make it sound as though you think we should all adopt the one that goes: 'If you can't say something nice...'  
   
  We do what we do for an audience.  Guess what? The audience is your critic- and what they have to say isn't always so nice- like it or not. 
   
  While we're using cliches: How 'bout: "Art (like life) is not practiced in a vacuum."
   
  or: "If you can't take the heat...."
   
  Darrell Lee Music
  Music Director/Conductor
  Stow Symphony Orchestra

Steve Wojtas <gymnoid at msn.com> wrote:
  You may as well know from the outset that I’m probably going to tip over a 
sacred cow or two. Some may even say that I’m tilting at windmills. Be 
that as it may.

But what I’d like to know is: By whose leave do you deign to hold forth in 
judgment of the artist and his works? Are you his peer? Have you studied 
intensively; have you practiced extensively in the discipline in which you 
presume to sit in judgment? For unless you have, your pronouncements are 
just so much balloon juice and worth as much.

Or do you see it as your sacred and moral duty to instruct the unwashed 
masses as to what they must think? For myself, as part of the unwashed 
masses, and as a thinking man who has it on good authority that I am above 
average in intelligence, I prefer to think for myself, thank you very much.

To the theatre critic: Have you spent countless hours of countless days 
honing your technique so that you can convey volumes of meaning with one 
look or with that certain inflection? As director, have you spent weeks or 
months coaxing just the right emotion, just the right interplay from as many 
as a dozen or more actors? And while you’re doing this, have you had to 
keep in check the tempers of a cast and crew who are overwrought and 
overtired from emotional and physical labors as you approach impending 
deadlines? As a set designer or lighting designer, have you had to create a 
mood or ambiance that is aesthetically pleasing to the audience as well as a 
space in which the actors can move efficiently and safely? And have you had 
to do it while keeping your creative vision within budget?

Unless you’ve done these things yourself, you have no right to judge those 
who have.

To the movie critic: Have you ever had to stay awake late into the night, 
every night, memorizing pages of dialogue only to wake up at an ungodly hour 
so that you can spend hours in a make-up chair before going on set so that 
you can convey the depth of emotion of a tearful parting as your lover 
boards the train for the front? And have you done this while sweltering 
under hot lights, and while dozens of techs and crew scurry around mere feet 
from you?

Unless you’ve done these things yourself, you have no right to judge those 
who have.

To the dance critic: Have you spent literally years practicing at the barre 
to perfect your technique? Have you spent hours physically exerting 
yourself, sometimes to the point of exhaustion, forcing your body into 
positions and movements it was never designed to assume; only to go home 
each night and spend countless hours unable to sleep because of the pain in 
your muscles and joints? Yet you get up and do it all over again the next 
day.

Unless you’ve done these things yourself, you have no right to judge those 
who have.

To the music critic: Have you spent years practicing your breathing and 
vocal technique? Or spent years in practice developing the muscles and 
dexterity of your fingers and arms? Or what about the musician who spent 
years developing his embrasure so that he is able to coax that clean, clear 
note from his instrument?

Unless you’ve done these things yourself, you have no right to judge those 
who have.

Have you ever sat in front of a blank page month after month or year after 
year trying to create on it a microcosm that is both believable and 
engaging? Have you sweated blood doing it? Have you suffered countless 
rejections of your creation before your work is published?

Unless you’ve done these things yourself, you have no right to judge those 
who have.

To put it in the vernacular, unless you’ve “been there, done that”, you have 
no right to judge those who have. You know, I can’t help but wonder that 
sometime long past, someone somewhere got the silly notion that your opinion 
matters. Isn’t that a hoot? If I may coin a phrase: Those who can, do. 
Those who can’t, sit in judgment.

Well, Mr. and Ms. Critic, there’s the gauntlet. Justify your existence.

Steve Wojtas

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