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<P
style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: auto 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto"
class=MsoNormalCxSpFirst align=center><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">What Were They
Thinking: The Critic As Playwright<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P
style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: auto 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto"
class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle align=center><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Bob
Abelman<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Cleveland Jewish
News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Member, International
Association of Theatre Critics <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #222222"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: auto 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto"
class=MsoNormalCxSpFirst><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Q</SPAN></I></B><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How many theater critics does it take to
screw in a light bulb?</SPAN></I><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><SPAN
style="mso-tab-count: 1">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: auto 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto"
class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">A</SPAN></I></B><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">: <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All of them. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One to be highly critical of the design
element, one to critique the performance of the bulb itself, and all to suggest
that they could build a better light bulb in their sleep.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: auto 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto"
class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">While many theater
critics believe that they can write a better play in their sleep than the ones
they review for a living, very few have actually done so and fewer still have
turned it into a going concern.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Among the more renowned are T</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>he Saturday Review’s </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">George
Bernard Shaw, the New Republic’s Eric Bentley, and the </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: #252525; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Bristol
Evening World’s Tom Stoppard.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: auto 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto"
class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: #252525; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Perhaps
Cleveland’s own Christine Howey will be added to this list.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A clever, caustic award-winning critic
for the Cleveland Scene, she is also a former actor and director, a published
poet and competitive </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Poetry Slam
participant, and </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">–
with last year’s staging of her one-woman play “Exact Change” by the Cleveland
Public Theatre – a produced playwright.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">The
autobiographical play, performed by Howey herself, </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">takes us on her
arduous transgender journey from Dick to Christine and does so through her
personal poetry and powerful prose.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">“Exact
Change” </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">received rave reviews
from local critics, including this one, and is undergoing a major revision for a
limited engagement at </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Akron’s
None Too Fragile Theatre </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">on Dec. 12 and
13.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">The
Cleveland Jewish News caught up with Howey during out of town previews.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">CJN</SPAN></B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>notorious</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"
lang=EN> </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">life
of British theater critic Kenneth Tynan was the subject of a one-person play
that premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in London in 2004.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But unlike your play, Tynan didn’t write
the piece and he certainly didn’t perform it in.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: auto 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto"
class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: auto 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto"
class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Howey:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Well,<B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> </B>he was dead.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And, reportedly, not much of a performer
when he wasn’t.</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: auto 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto"
class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">For
more of this review, go to: <A
href="http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/article_bf07afe2-7438-11e4-a7c3-2b8156029fb9.html">http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/article_bf07afe2-7438-11e4-a7c3-2b8156029fb9.html</A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>