After Dark - December 7, 2010

By Gaëtan L. Charlebois (Editor-in-Chief) I am astounded by the success of The Charlebois Post after a single week online. I am also enormously thankful to be surrounded by collaborators who like theatre and its people so much. The ideas and the writing here have certainly struck a chord with our readers and with me.

Steve Galluccio's piece, for instance, offers an important lesson: to carve out a good career in this business you not only need talent, you have to work your ass off. But Galluccio's piece also reminds that it's also about how you approach the work (a dinner with a producer is not only good business it can also be pleasant) and moreover, you'd better enjoy the work you do. In our business, we can spot lazy, jaded malcontents a mile off: it shows in sloppiness on the stage, it shows in inelegant PR, in aimless texts and it shows in tired (and ultimately tiresome) reporting. As one professor of mine reminded his theatre students over and over again: it's not called "play" for nothing.





David Allan King's list also brought Anthony Palermo's think piece and reaction from all sides (King's was CharPo's most popular post for days). Clearly the debate about critics and their role is ongoing and still important. However, I would like to add my two cents. In my two decades or so as a theatre critic I never felt I was offering anything more than an informed opinion about the production and another avenue in the ongoing conversation that is the theatre. I am suspicious of critics who suggest this conversation ends with their review of the production but also suspicious of artists who see the review as such (ie: get hysterically angry or happy as if their work is now a finished object). Theatre is not painting, film or sculpture - the piece must evolve. CharPo and its collaborators want to be part of that evolution. Part of the  ongoing conversation.

Finally, the phenomenal reaction to CharPo on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and comment right here on the site tells me that our approach to theatre and discussions of it is fundamentally changing. Artists and journalists who ignore the new media and social networks do so at their peril. (95% of traffic to CharPo came from Facebook, 3% from Twitter.) This is why English-language theatre here is exploding, I believe: the torch has been passed to a brilliant group of young artists who express themselves not only on stage but everywhere. They continue the discussion. This was never clearer to me then when I did a Twitter search for #MECCA to see what people were tweeting. The Twittersphere was burning up with delight as winners were named.

Estelle Rosen

There's another lesson: delight at the honours bestowed on others. In this spirit, I would personally like to congratulate Estelle Rosen for the honour she received from the QDF last night; no one deserves this more than my friend and dear collaborator on this new project in our lives.





Gaëtan L. Charlebois (Editor-in-Chief)