“I’d say it’s pretty crucial…I think that people are working within their means and so with not enough funding, that’s going to have an effect on what you produce so if I know that someone had, for example, six days to do a short film, then that’s going to factor into my review.”
“Reviews are for the audience as either recommendations or [for] someone to see if their views align with yours and to another extent the artist themself, to say this is what I enjoyed, maybe this is what can be improved.”
“So, my primary focus is on storytelling. A show is good if it tells a good story, not just from a linear perspective, but also thematically and [in the] underlying ideas. I think that if you are not telling me something, then what did you produce and why?”
“A mixture of both, actually. I think that as a critic I should be open minded, I should be coming into every show being willing to be told a new story in different ways and if I’m already coming in with preconceived notions then I’m really not going to give a good enough review. However, with each review I write, it comes from how I personally relate to the show as well as how they do it. In a sense, it’s one of the most important things because if I relate to it then I’m going to enjoy it more. However, I can’t let that be the be all and end all of why, otherwise it’ll just be ‘I didn’t like this’, just because it doesn’t match me.”
“I think it then comes into the difference of maybe appreciating and enjoying? So, I’ve appreciated a lot of great work that I didn’t necessarily enjoy and I’ve enjoyed a lot of fine work that, you know, I could understand why someone wouldn’t appreciate.”
“Even if you don’t necessarily vibe with the piece – maybe vibe’s the wrong word – there’s always something from a dramaturgical perspective or a theatrical perspective or a human perspective that I think you can learn. If I don’t have a strong opinion… maybe I’m just a really opinionated person. But yeah, if I come out and don’t have an initial instinct I think it’s something that just needs to settle, for me. It’s something that I need to have a conversation about, because often I do have feelings. They just take a bit longer to form. Or it’s something that somebody else might feel very strongly about which is interesting because then I can learn from them.”
“No, I do, I always think about – it’s funny, I always think about the creative team or the actor or whoever, whoever’s been involved in the process, reading what I’ve written. As a theatremaker I’ve had my own pieces of work critiqued and I know how that feels. Particularly, to be bashed in quite a cruel way I don’t think serves anybody so it’s something that always plays on my mind and I definitely do consider… it’s important to critique, right? But it’s important to do it in the right way.”
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