A Hard Round of Reviews

My daughter's Chicago theatre production of Map of Virtue for COR Theatre has brought out a widely scattered group of reviews from the "local" media.  One reviewer (who shall go nameless) writing for the "big newspaper" in town blamed the play and the actors' lack of "investment" in their acting/characters as a fatal flaw. She thus exhibited she knew nothing about theatre beyond realism -- perhaps the "stuff" of her favorite Lifetime Channel movies. 

The concept of "acting styles" has kind of disappeared from modern parlance (and reviewing). If something isn't totally "reality based" (even the kind of unlinked 'reality' contained in 'reality television') it just can't be any good. This is where that kind of reviewer needs to link to authors and stylists like Brecht, or Ivey, or even Shakespeare. Realism is not the only anchor to reality. Lots of forms of realism also exist in: expressionism, impressionism, objective acting, etc. This reviewer needs to school herself in the many forms of theatre that exist.

On the positive side of the "review" cycle -- several reviews (including the "other big newspaper in town" and a couple of the better media reviewers) got it!  That is they understood that the "effect of a play is not intrinsic or necessary by the mode of performance." Plays can be realistic at one moment -- and stylized diatribes at the next. The overall impact of a production is what is at stake. And any reviewer worth hiring -- has to get beyond her/his own limitations in theatre and be open to the process of "audience-dom."

Julia Neary Has Died

This gifted performer, this erstwhile professor at DePaul, this friend of Tosha Fowler (who is very close to me) -- has died of anal and liver cancer. She was only 50 years old and left a legacy of students, friends and colleagues who loved her.  I only met her once -- in a bar called Four Moons in Chicago (where Tosha works, and still works)-- where she was celebrating the weekend with Toy (Tosha's business partner at the time) and others.

The meeting was brief -- I found her full of life, yet not quite "comfortable" as a person. I cannot explain my impression other than to recall she did not seem "right" about things. And now she is gone --- much too soon. It does bear resemblance to Sheila's death -- about the same age, equally talented in multiple ways, and taken way too soon. My condolences to all who knew and loved her. 

I Sing the Body Electric...

Celebrating one's life is a lifelong process.  Understanding that changes occur; that growth and diminution both happen: is normal. Taking a good close look at those changes -- and understanding them, is a crucial part of accepting "what is."

Acceptance is the final stage in any process that brings knowledge, and peace, to our human existence. No, I can't be what I was "then;" and neither can anyone else Just to be, to still be, is the real goal of the movement of inexorable time.  It will be what it will be. 

Back from a Midwinter "Break"

Took the longest vacation I have had in more than a decade -- visiting Milwaukee (my favorite younger sister Linda), numerous other nieces, nephews, great-nieces, great-nephews; then on to Chicago to see my favorite daughter Tosha, her theatre company in tech (COR doing Map of Virtue) and restaurants galore. 

Linda is still healing -- though there does seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel for her. Tosha is still monetarily poor and character-rich, as always. Tosha does have that "heart of a lion" and none of the strangeness I have come to expect in Gemini women. Anyway it was mostly cold "up North" and I returned to mostly warm "back down South." Thanks be to God, and nature, and prevailing weather patterns.