Over at Angry White Guy in Chicago, Don often breaks out into angry rants (fits his blog title!) about every topic under the sun, from tourists to theatre, politics to gas prices, stupid hats to idiot bloggers calling for civility. In his latest post, “Is being ‘civil’ just another way to shut people up?”, Don argues that his ranting style brings honesty to a culture and community that simply isn’t used to being honest. And let’s face it, folks, he’s right.

When is the last time someone came to one of your performances and, when asked how it went, said “That was a shitty show”? Honestly, when did someone give you NEGATIVE feedback? They don’t. Or if they do, they cushion it with “Well, I didn’t like this part so much *mumble*becauseithoughtitwasstupid*mumble*, BUT I liked your performance. You were so funny!” They deflect the negative criticism while focusing on the positive.

One of Don’s favorite pasttimes was to rip Scott Walters a new one each week. And each week, Scott would retaliate. It always resulted in interesting conversations and arguments for us readers, but to be honest, when the overarching plot of both blogs should have been moving forward, they were standing still, rehashing the same arguments over and over. Many readers, including myself, put out a call for civility.

Don clearly takes offense at this statement. Why should he be civil? Clearly, we’re just trying to shut him up.

That’s not the case.

It’s one thing to say “This Pine Tree cigarette sucks donkey balls” and quite another to say “This Pine Tree cigarette sucks donkey balls because I feel like I’m smoking a picnic table and I think I’m gonna puke”

The first is just antagonistic and worthy of you wearing an “I’m a fucking retard” hat. The second expresses the same feeling, but offers justification which a) validates your opinion in that at least fact-based opinion and b) lets them know exactly why you felt their product sucked donkey balls.

Any time I call for civility, that’s what I’m asking for — not just criticism but constructive criticism. Meaningful feedback that can be acted upon.

I feel like Don’s review of GreyZelda’s The Skriker was a good one — he pointed out the flaws, essentially saying “I felt like this was crap and could’ve been a lot better, and here’s why…” As a director, I would have walked away with a lot of useful information from that. I might not agree with the criticism, but I’d at least listen and learn. The next night, I might watch it with the newfound information and notice what that person was talking about — or decide that their complaint wasn’t relevant (i.e. it only happened that one night, or perhaps you had intended something to work this way — in which case, you need to figure out why they didn’t get it, etc etc).

Just because you don’t like something I did does NOT mean that I’m obligated to follow your suggestions. It simply means that you had an opinion. And most people don’t just make comments like “That was horseshit” without at least a semi-good reason. So if find out what that reason was, I can maybe make it more clear next time.

Be honest. Be critical. Be constructively critical.

For you theatre people out there, if you honestly don’t like something — SAY SO. If you don’t say anything, we’ll never know and we’ll never change! We’ll assume it just works and keep on keeping on. But if you say something, then at least you can rest in the knowledge that you put in your six cents (gas prices, you know) and that if they don’t take your criticism to heart, then you’ve done all you can.

Cause let’s be honest, folks. There’s a lot of shitty theatre going on out there. And we put up with it because we’re too nice to say otherwise. There’s a lot of good theater out there, too. You know what separates the good theatre from the shitty theatre? Criticism. Lots and lots of constructive criticism. These guys get advice from people they trust so that they know what works and what doesn’t.

Anyone who doesn’t accept constructive criticism and at least listens to it with an open mind and hopes to learn is a fucking moron and deserves to wear Don’s stupid hat.

Be honest. Be bold. Be in-your-face. Be constructive.

I’m relatively new to blogging, and I’ve yet to make it into extensive professional theatre credits, but I’ve been trying to keep up-to-date on the latest and greatest in the theatre scene. I have to say, despite only blogging for two months, I’ve read some pretty inspiring posts and chatted with some pretty incredible people. These are the guys who are changing my perspective on theatre, getting out of my young, naive viewpoint and into the nitty gritty reality of theatre. Here’s a brief list of just a few of the blogs that I read on a regular basis. I’ve got over 30 that I subscribe to, but for now I’ll stick to about five. Here we go:

- Theatre Ideas is run by Scott Walters. I’ve linked to him before. He’s one of the masterminds behind a movement to change the face of theatre. While his posts are hit-and-miss with me (sorry, I’m not good with statistics, Scott), I always walk away, so to speak, with more questions than answers. In case you’re wondering, that’s good. It generates comments (like the To MFA or Not MFA conversation) and keeps me on my toes.

- Parabasis is another blog that I read when they update. Like Theatre Ideas, Parabasis has some good stuff. Every once in awhile, there’s an off-topic post, but that kinda keeps things from getting too repetitive. A good blog that was posted very recently deals with the issue of Enhancement, or when commercial producers fund a show by a non-profit, in hopes of moving it to a commercial venue in the future. Good stuff.

- An Angry White Guy In Chicago isn’t really angry. He’s white, and he’s in Chicago, but he’s not angry. Well, sometimes he’s angry, sometimes he’s not. He got the name from — well, that’s not really relevant to this post. Semantics aside, this guy attacks some pretty serious issues facing theatre in Chicago, as well as some political stuff. Since theatre and politics are two of my favorite subjects to read about (until the election anyway, and then I’ll tune out), this ain’t so bad. Don’s got particularly funny ideas regarding stunt casting for Broadway musicals.

- A Storefront Rebellion was started by Kris Vire who, alongside Scott Walters, advocates the proliferation of.. well.. storefront theatres. Once again, great posts that are both inspiring and fun to read. He regularly posts on another blog called Time Out Chicago, which I have yet to read. Good stuff, though.

- BroadwayMouth wants to be a librettoist. Is that a word? I’m not sure. A teacher who wants to become a full-time libretto-maker (that’s definitely a word) writes a blog. He’s got some good down-to-earth posts, reviews, stories, etc. You name it, he’s got it, and he’s a good writer to boot! One of his recent posts discusses his first production experience. Great stuff!

By the way, you should all sign up for Google Reader and follow the instructions to add it to your favorite browser (I use Firefox). Once you’ve added Google Reader capability, you can go to any of the above blogs and look for one of the following:

• - Subscribe to this blog
• - Posts (Atom)
• - Subscribe to this RSS Feed
• - or look for an orange button that looks like antenna rays or something.

Once you click on those, choose to either add them to your GMail account or to Google Reader. One will send a notification to your email everytime someone updates, the latter will give you a button to press when you want to read a newly updated blog.

If you have any questions regarding RSS stuff, just ask. It’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s a great way to follow blogs (or any website for that matter)!!

Toodles for now!