[NEohioPAL] New theater reviewer in town CORRECTION

Thu Sep 24 08:06:52 PDT 2009

I'm going to say some things and there WILL be some contradictory info below: 

1.  I've played the role of dark, mysterious, brutually honest- but anonymous!- blogger before and I can admit it was a good time, but no one else cared, as i think it just seemed like some spineless jerk-off bitching on the internet instead of manning up. 

2.  Robert makes a lot of fair points, although I can also admit the "brutual honesty" of your reviews may make them my favorite.  

3. Two decades from now puts me at 47 and I sincerely hope I have better things to do than move back to Cleveland and try to go all cloak and dagger on the community of non-professional actors (who clearly have admitted/recognized they'll never be professional actors so long as they're in this town), revealing brutally honest truths about the performance, direction, lighting, costuming, etc. of Joe or Tim or Sally who is actually a trained certified public accountant and gets reveiws for THAT role and that actually matter...  

Critique is one thing, but tearing anyone in the local acting community (unless they have their Equity, SAG, AFTRA card) is like slapping a kid for trying something new or just trying to express themselves...it's just about self-development, expression,  and fun. No one here's in it for the big win of the Tony or Oscar (and if they wanted that, they'd have moved), which means they shouldn't suffer degradation from some anonymous reviewer, either.  You want to bust balls and egos that deserve to be busted?  Go back to LA or to NYC where millions are riding on people's performance, plus the egos, etc. If you ruin someone in Cleveland's theatre experience, you should be ashamed of yourself- the same people you'll tear apart would probably just prefer admit publicly they're not professionals and are doing it for fun...oh wait, they probably already do.    

Personally, I never read reviews of Cleveland shows and wonder why they event exist

MG

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Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:38:33 -0400
From: rhhawkes at gmail.com
To: honestt100 at gmail.com
CC: neohiopal at listserve.com
Subject: Re: [NEohioPAL] New theater reviewer in town CORRECTION

I managed to chop the end off my message at last sending. This is my full reply to Honest-T:

Dear "Honest-T":

Welcome home. I hope you find some pleasure and enlightenment in the many theatres around town.

The anonymity of your enterprise is unusual. Regular reviewers for the printed press, or for the on-line reviews with which I, at least, am familiar, always reveal their names. Those of us in the community who sometimes feel moved to encourage support of others' endeavors with unsolicited reviews on this e-mail list, for example, do the same. The business of some Zorro-like reviewer who may swoop out of the night to zap us with "brutal honesty", while doubtless intended as a bit of fun, strikes me as somewhat suspect. 

With regard to "brutal honesty", by the way, just let me say that when I was briefly a reviewer myself, for Northern Ohio LIVE, I had constantly to be on guard against getting carried away with the cleverness of my own rhetoric - a temptation to which I'm afraid I succumbed more than once. In this, as in all things, it behooves me to check my motives, and to make sure that my aim is to be thoughtful, constructive, and helpful, and not just to present myself as "honest" or "truthful". It is surely better, for example, for me to present an alternate point of view than it is for me to tell you that I think what you've said is the stupidest thing I've ever heard (which could be "true".) Truthfulness is often brutal; real honesty is not. 

And I need to remember that my opinion (informed judgment) and my tastes (likes and dislikes) are not the same thing at all. A review that begins "X is my favorite show" loses critical credibility with me immediately.

I say any of this only in response to your caveat that we in the biz, and other readers, should "be forewarned".  ("Whoa! Look out! Better not screw up! Honest-T might be in the house.") We all do the best we've got for the day. Sometimes our best isn't good enough, and that's life. If we've put ourselves out there, and charged money besides, we can expect to be called to account, and encouraged to do better or otherwise next time if we fall short. Mostly that judgment comes directly from our audience's wallets. If we and they can get some honest help from critics, so much the better.

Cheers. Have fun.

Robert Hawkes

On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 11:09 PM, Honest T <honestt100 at gmail.com> wrote:

Hello all,

I am a former Cleveland native (and avid theater goer) who has recently returned home after 2 decades on the west-coast.  As a theater fan, I have noticed that many reviewers are often "off the mark" in what they say about shows.  So, I am continuing something that I have been doing for the last few years -- writing an independent blog which will express MY OPINIONS on shows that I see.  Again, I stress that that these are merely opinions and I do not claim to be infallible.  I am honest.  Brutally honest.  Please be forewarned.  I am thrilled to be back on my native soil, and I look forward to sharing my views on the local theater scene.  CHECK OUT THE REVIEWS AT:  http://honestt100.blogspot.com

Honest-T
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