Walkie Talkie Blog
A TLT PATRON PASSES JUDGEMENT >>> As you've probably seen me mention a few squillion times, I'm playing Bob Zelnick in Tacoma Little Theatre's production of Frost/Nixon. As is commonplace for TLT and many other troupes, the producers served champagne(ish) and cake for those patrons who were able to attend
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A CRITIC ON THE BOARDS >>> For thousands of nights, since I was seven years old, this has been my milieu. Above is the view from the wings of a typical Frost/Nixon rehearsal at Tacoma Little Theatre. Notice I'm not sitting in the house waiting to critique the show; I'm a member
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AN UNCOOL MANIFESTO >>> My friend Amy interviewed me this week for a theater project. When she asked me what advice I'd offer to theater students, even I was surprised how quickly and effortlessly an answer flew from my mouth. "Stop being so goddamn cool all the time," I barked. And
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WHAT I LOOK FOR, PART IV >>> A professional theater critic should be the second critic to see the show, not the first, and he or she is much less important to the show's success or failure than the actual first critic: the director. Part of a director's job is to
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WHAT I LOOK FOR, PART III >>> When I watch a play, I take in all the same elements you do - set, costumes, lighting, music, dancing, movement, acting, writing and so on - but I also look deeper. As I said before, I watch for focused creativity and unity, meaning
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WHAT I LOOK FOR, PART II >>> Here are more ways for you, the theater director, to impress the hopeful critic-me, and your paying customers. There's so much amazing live and recorded entertainment in the South Sound that it's wasteful to pass up any possible method of connecting with your audience...which brings
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THOUGHTS FROM THE VOLCANO'S THEATER CRITIC >>> I've heard people say casting is half of directing, but if that's true, then play selection is the other two-thirds. (I may have forgotten to carry a one somewhere.) When I critique a script, I'm looking at a wide variety of considerations, the foremost
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ALTERED STATES >>> As you may have seen in the current issue of the Weekly Volcano, this week's cover story is about hypnosis. Specifically, I let a mild-mannered hypnotist an all-access pass to my innermost mysteries. You can read it here. Ideally, this will be one in a series of articles about legally
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NO REGRETS BUT ONE >>> In interviews with professional critics, one question arises again and again: Is there a review you regret? Looking back, is there anything you wish you could change or take back? Well, I've been doing this for about a year now; and in all that time, over
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WHY I DO THIS >>> I don't sleep well the night before a negative review goes online. There are probably critics who enjoy shredding the dreams of theater artists, but I don't happen to be one of them. I try to keep my critical writing, if not impartial, then at least
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RAGELESS IN SEATTLE >>> Times are tough. The Weekly Volcano can't dispatch correspondents across the country at the drop of a hat. But much like Jon Stewart's Daily Show, which routinely employs greenscreen to fake stand-up news reports from overseas, WV editor Matt Driscoll can, just barely, afford to send me
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2.5 ACRES OF AWESOME >>> The current record for Largest Food Drive Ever netted half a million pounds of food. Now Emergency Food Network, Northwest Harvest, Tacoma Public Schools and the Stadium Centennial Foundation hope to celebrate the Stadium Bowl's 100th anniversary by doubling that record from Friday to Saturday. Fill
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THE PERFECT 9/11 >>> When I woke up last Saturday, Facebook was ablaze with remembrances of Sept. 11 and debates about the advisability of constructing an interfaith community center, including a Muslim prayer room, two blocks from Ground Zero. I don't mind telling you I cried many times over what
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NO DAY AT THE BEACH >>> 1:20 p.m.: I arrive on Pacific Avenue, relieved to find a space in one-hour parking. I'm here for Seaside Opera, a performance art piece by A K Mimi Allin, aka ThePoetessAtGreenLake.blogspot.com. She promises a 10-15 minute celebration of "sea-inspired operas" in Tollefson Plaza. Aha, I
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Harlequin Productions opens up the read through of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hide >>> In movies and TV, they call it a table read. In theater, we call it a read-through. It's the first rehearsal, at which the cast meets for the first time to sit around a
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IT'S GOOD YO BE YOUNG >>> Properly speaking, Harlequin Productions' Sixties Kicks isn't musical theater, it's a concert. Five talented young people backed by a killer five-piece rock band sing 37 hits of the 1960s. I'm not a music critic, but I don't have to
