512: Oh Noes! An Actual--*le gasp*--REVIEW!!!

Oct 28, 2008 15:00


Last night, I couldn't get to sleep for thinking. Perhaps, if I still had a room to myself, I could have calmed myself down into tiredness via the usual pacing and talking to myself... Alas, though the roommate situation has improved immeasurably, I'd hate to interrupt his simultaneous watching of House and solving Chemistry formulas. So I had to ( Read more... )

theater, criticism, drama, qc, controversy

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Comments 22

unwoman October 28 2008, 23:12:41 UTC
Real artists appreciate constructive criticism, though I suppose if you're used to ass-kissing it can come as a surprise!

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andyleggett October 29 2008, 00:38:39 UTC
My sentiments exactly.

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going_not_gone October 28 2008, 23:57:16 UTC
For what it's worth (and not having seen the show), I thought it was a well written and balanced review, describing both the high points and the flaws of the production, and coming to an overall positive conclusion. It was neither half-witted nor poorly edited. If they were expecting a puff piece, well, they need to look up 'review' in the dictionary.

I would publish a devastatingly polite response in the QC, explaining the purpose of a theater review (as opposed to a press release or advertisement) and the meaning and intent of 'trannie-fierce.' Of course, I don't have to deal with these prima donnas on a regular basis....

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going_not_gone October 28 2008, 23:58:55 UTC
also, NOBODY who uses the phrase "of which I was not only cast in but assistant director" has any right to call anyone else's work "poorly edited."

* is appalled *

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andyleggett October 29 2008, 00:38:01 UTC
lol It's obviously a barb, for despite the fact that she failed to notice my obvious gayness, she was able to read well enough to see I was also copy-editor. I can only imagine how the other copy editors actually feel about that statement, as they're the ones that proofed it, not me (I make it a point not to touch my own stuff like that, unless they want me to enter my own corrections).

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andyleggett October 29 2008, 00:41:14 UTC
I wanted to do something like that, but I was afraid it would come off just sounding bitchy. If I *could* pull off "devestatingly polite" maybe I could manage a pseudo-Austen-esque tone that would be doubly ironic! *claps*

"One would hope that artists, placing themselves upon the stage for the express purpose of public consumption, would be aware that this action by necessity lays them open to not only criticism, but the sharpest of barbs, which they in turn must endure with a smile and elegant turn of the cheek." Or does that sound too pretentious?

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devilishkurumi October 29 2008, 01:04:08 UTC
Not even gonna deal with the theatre kids here, but DEAR GOD ANDY PUT THE PICTURES BEHIND AN LJ CUT SO MY BEAUTIFUL LAYOUT ISN'T SCREWED UP

Also I have your Questionable Content print FINALLY.

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andyleggett October 29 2008, 04:40:04 UTC
I thought I *did* put it under one... and now it refuses to obey my demands that it hide under one and is willfully ignoring. *shrug*

But yeah, like I said, I have friends in the production (just a few, and not *really* close), but I just didn't want to offend and don't see how I have.

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scottiron October 29 2008, 01:51:20 UTC
The Theater Department deserved it. From what I heard from some credible sources (who happen to be theater department grads), the show was just meh. It wasn't great and it wasn't crap. I find a certain amount of humorous irony in the fact that it's a theater girl who's having a theatrical hissy fit in the campus newspaper. lulz, and so forth.

Write your response, Andy. You can be polite if you want. But if it were me, I'd drive the knife even deeper, especially pointing out how her point of view is biased since she was in the show and assistant directed it. ALWAYS gotta point out bias. It's the biggest of all written knives...well, that and scandalous evidence of embezzlement/affairs/crazy ex-Whittier presidents giving drugs to guys and sleeping with them.

You get the idea.

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andyleggett October 29 2008, 04:42:14 UTC
Then why do I feel like it would somehow be appropriate or make it worse? But I really am going crazy wanting to tear her entire e-mail apart, pointing out everything that is wrong with it. It is just too hypocritical for me to stand, you know?!

At any rate, I seem to be vacillating with it all over the place, trying to be decorous, then changing my mind, getting really incensed, than pulling back...

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scottiron October 29 2008, 14:07:03 UTC
Hypocracy is a human condition, mister. Something that you need to get used to, especially as someone who is now a known name around campus, is that people will say one thing and do another directly to your face. I experienced this quite brutally during my time on the Senate. What matters is how hard you're willing to fight back and with how much tact you're willing to shove the nuke down their throat. If there's one thing that I did well, it was make sure people knew I was pissed off. I didn't always handle the consequences very well, but that's part of getting used to being an adult.

You wrote an honest review and at the end you had praise for the production for what it was. If the bitch can't take criticism then maybe she should get out of the damn theater business, amirite?

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andyleggett October 29 2008, 18:02:04 UTC
I think you are... The thing I'm just trying to figure out is the best way to express my anger. QC doesn't run responses, and I don't care enough about Miss Lopez to reply directly to her. I think the best way would be to go to the Theater faculty and be like "wtf is the problem here?" And try and talk to the, like, two people I know who were in the production that I actually like, who are in my two classes, and who I DO NOT want to be angry at any more.

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jeremytblack October 29 2008, 02:23:26 UTC
I wrote a long response and it didn't upload. It's gone, including my eloquence. Sorry for that ( ... )

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andyleggett October 29 2008, 04:45:20 UTC
Yeah, especially considering basically everyone else is behind me, having taken pains to tell me how much they liked my review... That's more damning to them than anything I could write in retaliation, in my estimation.

But there are so many things wrong with her e-mail that I cannot let stand--her pre-emption of what is offensive to the GLBT community, her denigration of another student organization, her attack on free speech and presumption on what the QC is supposed to do... I want to make a public statement about the misguidedness of these views.

I'm leery of talking to any of the theater people 'cause I don't know if I have the energy for it. But maybe that would be better than starting a textual war...-_-

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