why write reviews
I am wary of performance and attend when obligated yet often am aroused to write.
I prefer description supported by action. I go looking, searching, asking, questioning, reacting to data, leaping in, constructing notes to [re]act on my responses instead of contemplating on them. I dislike a cursory summary of the narrative action and shy from offering judgemental impressions. I prefer to present details, referencing examples to illustrate an assembling attention. I try to situate the work within the context of the oeuvre of the playwright/director/ensemble or whatever seems appropriate: a close reading of content, form and working procedures, historical and biographical tidbits, the canonical vocabulary of theory, innovation or stated intention.
I require an intelligence of feeling and academic rigour parallel with associative linking to create a complexity that blurs serious and playful thinking. My wish is to stimulate questions that encourage a working manifesto for all types of practitioners. I look for a tone of passionate detachment infused with provocations. I value wit and insight. I recognize my knowledge is fragile, my certainty about anything has decreased and embrace the liquidity of reflection.
As theatre is one of the many "rivers" of culture I write about theatre to swim in its currents. I confess a huge reliance on the vast writings of others from diverse fields and hope my [re]views stimulate engagement on performance work.
Hope to meet you at a performance.
:: note :: ... part of a series of fragments on self ...
I prefer description supported by action. I go looking, searching, asking, questioning, reacting to data, leaping in, constructing notes to [re]act on my responses instead of contemplating on them. I dislike a cursory summary of the narrative action and shy from offering judgemental impressions. I prefer to present details, referencing examples to illustrate an assembling attention. I try to situate the work within the context of the oeuvre of the playwright/director/ensemble or whatever seems appropriate: a close reading of content, form and working procedures, historical and biographical tidbits, the canonical vocabulary of theory, innovation or stated intention.
I require an intelligence of feeling and academic rigour parallel with associative linking to create a complexity that blurs serious and playful thinking. My wish is to stimulate questions that encourage a working manifesto for all types of practitioners. I look for a tone of passionate detachment infused with provocations. I value wit and insight. I recognize my knowledge is fragile, my certainty about anything has decreased and embrace the liquidity of reflection.
As theatre is one of the many "rivers" of culture I write about theatre to swim in its currents. I confess a huge reliance on the vast writings of others from diverse fields and hope my [re]views stimulate engagement on performance work.
Hope to meet you at a performance.
:: note :: ... part of a series of fragments on self ...
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