Stage Performances.
Audiences are there to appreciate it. Actors are needed for the play to live. Directors are there to shape the landscape. Designers are there for the visual landscape. Critics?
I have never been really turned on by critics. I find critiquing one’s work isn’t natural. In the art world, critiquing is sometime ephemeral in comparison to a football review. I actually don’t really care about someones review to some extent. A person attempting to find their way in a piece or someone who tries to be intelligent about something that is usually more about an emotion. How can you critic emotions? Why should you?
Sometimes I wonder if critics actually understand the work involved in creating a piece for the stage either dance or theatre. It starts from a story that wants to be told. Conceptualizing the environment in which the piece will live arrives over many discussions at the local coffee shop. More people get involved. The team grows (hopefully). Performers rehearse. Designers try to sell the visual imagery to the directors/choreographers. They create the environment, the life of the actors or dancers. Again, the team grows and grows until the day it closes. The end.
The craft can produce interesting conversations and sometimes well, there isn’t much to talk about. It might lack in one department or all of them. If so, it might just be someone didn’t communicate their intention well enough. It’s not as easy as it seems. Communication is where it all starts or ends, depending on how you view it.
I wonder if critics know how much work is involved? I wonder if critics know anything about theatre lighting? That seems to be a point where most shy away or just don’t understand the art of lighting a stage, a person, and an environment.
I care about the audience, what they thought about the play/dance they have just seen. I would love to be able to have an audience who participates with their opinions somehow. An active audience that is engaged, wow! I think sometimes the critics just blur the lines in between the artist and the audience because no matter what we say, it’s only opinions.