"You Americans all subscribe to the "Conspiracy of Mediocrity." You're all trying to preserve relationships and be liked that you are afraid to tell each other what you really think of one another's artistic work."
- Michael Joyce, Royal National Theatre Summer Acting Programme
In the summer of 1994, I had the privilege of auditioning and being chosen to participate in the Royal National Theatre's Summer Acting Programme, Anthony Hopkins, patron. It was a surreal month of classes in voice, movement, classical acting, mask work, professional development, and scene study. Ian McKellan provided a master class in Shakespeare, Janet McTeer coached our monologue performances, and the late great Alan Rickman challenged us to use our artistic voices as agents of social change. It was a summer I will always remember, even if it becomes more and more of a dream.
One of our acting instructors, Michael Joyce, was a longtime friend of the National, had been a companion to Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, and other notable actors of the British stage in the mid-/late-twentieth century. He shared the quote above, with the hope that everyone would use their experience, insight, knowledge, and skill to help better one another's artistic product. Criticism is not about evaluating one another's wrongs; ideally, it is about celebrating accomplishments, identifying areas for growth, and providing insights in a particular context or frame.
Recently, the Erie theatre community has lost the column inches and platform for public criticism, which is an essential part not only of critics exploring their own aesthetic perspectives but also for theatre artists to have a trusted, educated, and experienced eye to provide them with additional insights and areas to explore on their way.
This blog is my contribution to the conversation of area theatre artists. I offer my critical responses as someone who has given decades of service to academic and civic theatre in the region, as someone whose tastes have been formed over years of practical engagement, and as someone who genuinely wants the best for all theatre artists.
I do not presume to know everything about theatre; I do presume to know what I know. Hopefully, the reviews offered on this blog will be received in that spirit of resisting the "Conspiracy of Mediocrity," and will lead to a more open and welcome culture of proactive criticism in our theatre and arts community.
- Shawn+
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