Friends and Neighbors

Hello, everybody. I figured I could use a spot to do more long-form writing on the various topics that spark my interest. And as is so often the case for me, I find myself joining a trend about a decade after it stopped being trendy.

So welcome to my blog!

Mostly, this will serve be a platform for my reviews and commentary on theatre. I see a lot of local and regional theatre in Minnesota, and especially in the rural part of the state where I live, there’s a dearth of writing about the arts in general and theatre in particular. I feel theatre of all stripes deserves criticism – it’s what helps it grow, both commercially and artistically.

It won’t just be theatre commentary – I’ll probably spend time musing on my other interests along the way – cooking, film, what have you – but these days I find myself thinking and writing about theatre more than most other topics.

At the same time I can’t pretend I’m not personally invested in the success of many of the groups I’ll be writing about, having worked with and for community theatres from Wadena and Staples to as far away as Brainerd and Little Falls. Many of the people in these productions are people I consider friends, and I know that will impact my objectivity.

But criticism is not about objectivity – it never has been. It’s about sharing how a piece of art impacted you, and what your experience may mean for others. When people read reviews, they should be able to judge whether the thing being reviewed is worthwhile to them, whether the reviewer liked it, disliked it, or was ambivalent about it. If the artists are the seeds and the works are the plans, and audiences are the fertilizer, critics and commentators could be seen as the symbiotic insects who live on them. We need the ecosystem to keep going, and it’s in our interest to help it grow, even if our presence can be annoying.

So welcome, friends and neighbors.  Let’s come together and help the arts grow.