[NEohioPAL] CWRU: Their S*** Don't Stink?

[Deb Magid]

Were this person truly operating under the impression that the  
Cleveland theater community is a community (scroll down, it's in the  
body of the email), they wouldn't be looking for fights or posting  
provocative emails.

On Jul 20, 2009, at 11:20 AM, James Kosmatka wrote:

> I hate to jump to conclusions and make inferences without any facts  
> to back me up…
>
> BUT
>
> Take a look at this, CWRU’s MFA Acting Program postcard for their  
> production of All’s Well:
> http://www.twitpic.com/b02ri
> “No insipid takes on the script.
> No mosquitoes.
> Just well trained actors and a great director.”
>
> I find it impossible  to believe that this isn’t a slight directed  
> at the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, and perhaps the Ohio  
> Shakespeare Festival.  They are very clearly comparing themselves to  
> outdoor Shakespeare performances (“mosquitoes”), of which there are  
> only two in the region and only one in Cleveland.  The postcard then  
> links “insipid takes on the script” and a lack of “well trained  
> actors and a great director” to the aforementioned outdoor  
> Shakespeare company.
>
> This may be one of the most brazen, shameless pieces of advertising  
> I’ve seen in Cleveland theatre.  It displays a total lack of class  
> on the part of department chair Ron Wilson, director Geoff Bullen,  
> and whomever else at Case signed off on this.
>
> There are certainly valid criticisms to be made of Cleve Shakes, but  
> let’s face it: a $35,000/year university beating up on free  
> Shakespeare in the park is pretty crass, and amounts to nothing more  
> than bullying.
>
> I like to operate under the naïve impression that Cleveland’s  
> theatre community IS a community.  It’s a pretty rich and diverse  
> community, too, considering the problems Cleveland faces.  We have a  
> lot of great theatres to fill all kinds of niches, from CSF to  
> Theatre Ninjas to the Play House to CSU Summer Stages to Cleveland  
> Public Theatre.  And to see an organization say “We’re above all of  
> that.  We are separate, we are better, and we don’t want you  
> philistines dirtying up our Shakespeare” just gets my blood  
> boiling.  At this point, my rant’s starting to lose focus, so I’ll  
> close with this:
>
> I think Ron Wilson and Geoff Bullen owe CSF a big public apology.
>
> Sincerely,
> James Kosmatka, never affiliated in any official capacity with CSF,  
> but thinks they’re good people and good artists.
> ______________________________________
> NEohioPAL is SELF-SERVE. If you need to unsubscribe, change from  
> digest to one-at-a-time delivery or vice-versa, go on hiatus while  
> out of town, switch from mime to plain text or vice-versa, etc.  
> check out the FAQS at http://www.fredsternfeld.com.
> ______________________________________
> please consider a voluntary contribution to support Neohiopal - http://www.fredsternfeld.com/faqs.htm#support
> ______________________________________
> Disclaimer: The facts and/or opinions expressed in this message are  
> solely those of the person in the 'from' or 'reply-to' header. The  
> fact that this message is posted should in no way be taken as an  
> endorsement by the administrator of this list. Subscribers should  
> perform due diligence for all goods, services and activities  
> promoted on NEohioPAL.
> _____________________________________
> NEohioPAL mailing list
> http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20090720/d119bb9b/attachment-0004.htm>