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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Tour Whore, August 5, 2012


What would you do if there were no stars?
by Cameryn Moore




What would you do if there were no stars?
You’re a theatre-goer, an avid one, you pride yourself on seeing as many Fringe shows as you can cram in. When you talk to your friends who are less theatre-going than you are, you talk it up a little, how quirky and idiosyncratic the Fringe is, and you know that, therefore, by extension, they are going to admire how quirky and idiosyncratic you are.
You read the filler stories about the Fringe, take in your friend’s show (you hate it, but you can’t tell them that), make your preliminary lists. Maybe you even have a spreadsheet printed out in your notebook. But there are a lot of empty boxes in that chart, and you keep them empty until Sunday night of that first weekend, when the local mainstream daily paper has promised to finish all of their reviews. They helpfully organize it by the number of stars and you arrange and re-arrange the five-star shows until they have all fit in. And then you take the four-and-a-half star shows and try to wedge those into the remaining spaces, and you buy up tickets for all of them. You sweat hard over this process, so you feel justified in looking just a little bit weary on Monday afternoon, when a hard-working performer approaches you, smiling and holding his postcard. “No more, I’m done.” That’s right, you’ve settled your course.

You’re a theatre critic, possibly year-round, but more likely than not you’re only a theatre critic during these two weeks of the year.


But as the week goes on you hear all kinds of buzz about the other shows, the ones that didn’t make your cut. And you aren’t all that thrilled with a few of the ones that you’ve seen, you kinda wish you could trade out your tickets, but after all, yours are all five-star shows, or four, so you must be getting the best possible Fringe experience, right?
What would you do if there were no stars?
You’re a theatre critic, possibly year-round, but more likely than not you’re only a theatre critic during these two weeks of the year. The rest of the time you’re a sports writer, or a book reviewer, or a movie critic, or the calendar listing editor. Maybe you’re a journalism student and you’re excited about getting some clips for your slowly growing file; or you’re a theatre fan, and you’re excited about having lots of people pay attention to what you think (finally).
You stare enviously at the assignment lists emailed out; nothing famous is in yours. You watch all your shows over a few desperate days, and in between shows you huddle over your laptop, trying to pull your critique into the format laid down by your editor. There’s not much room, and you kinda didn’t understand some of the pieces, and you have to turn it all in by Sunday afternoon of opening weekend, or whatever deadline your fucking paper trumpeted to the world. 
But there is no room and no time. The stars make it easier, but they don’t feel better.


If you’re a real theatre critic, the longer you write these mini-reviews, the more years you’ve been at it, the more discontent you feel. This is not the way you like to write, you want to be thoughtful about it. You want more than a paragraph, you want some space to get into the technique, the approach. But there is no room and no time. The stars make it easier, but they don’t feel better.
So what would you do if there were no stars?
You’re an artist. You scan the papers and web sites that whole opening weekend, holding your breath a little as you scroll or flip through to your show’s listing. Maybe you knew when the media attended your show, maybe you knew that someone from this media outlet attended your show three Fringes back on the circuit, just so they could get a jump on reviewing for the current Fringe you’re in.
And you see it. 
IT’S A FIVE-STAR! Or four, which looks almost as good on posters! Quick, make those stars as big as you can and run around the Fringe pasting them up on as many of your posters as are still up. They go a long way toward making you feel better about the not-so-stellar review in the last city, or the one you got on your show two years ago.
It’s a three-star. Worse is when it’s actually a four-star review, there is nothing wrong in the review, no critique, all good things—nothing quotable, of course—but they gave it three stars. You shrug. It adds nothing. It’s a fine waste of newsprint.
the reviewer doesn’t understand your work, clearly, they can’t handle sex or rude words, they completely missed the point on the symbolism or the larger picture


It’s a two- or one-star. The reviewer got personal in a way that makes you mentally flip through all of your encounters over the past four days to see if maybe you ran over their dog or spilled ketchup on their expensive outfit, or something to justify the personal vendetta. You mutter about it over beers at the Fringe club, the reviewer doesn’t understand your work, clearly, they can’t handle sex or rude words, they completely missed the point on the symbolism or the larger picture. 
No matter how many stars are in your constellation, you have at least a little unease in your soul when you talk about it with other performers. Because you’ve seen some of those shows, and they were fucking amazing, and if the same paper gave you five and only gave them two and a half, well, how can you even trust a universe where that happens? Or they got a well-deserved four stars, so you can’t whinge on about your low star count without, again, calling into question the system. Or you saw the one that got a rave review, and all you can say is, no fucking way. The conversations bounce around between performers, because we all have seen it or been victims of it, or benefited by it, but the way it’s done now eats away at the soul. There has to be another way.
So … what would you do if there were no stars? Audience, reviewers, performers: what would you do differently, how would our entire Fringe culture change, and how would it feel?


Cameryn Moore is at the Calgary Fringe from August 3-10
camerynmoore.com

2 comments:

  1. Cameryn,

    I don’t have to imagine what it’s like to review without the star system. I’ve done it for three years in Ottawa at FullyFringed.ca while reviewing shows at the Ottawa Fringe Festival. In fact four of five sources of reviews in Ottawa don’t use stars: Ottawa Citizen, Capital Critics Circle, FullyFringed and Visitorium.

    I spend 1 to 3 hours writing a review about a 1 hour show at the Fringe. I prefer not to give a star rating because I want readers to spend 15 miinutes reading my 250-500 words. There were only 52 shows at the 2012 Ottawa Fringe, so I don’t think it’s terribly onerous to ask serious Fringers to read 52 reviews. FullyFringed organizes shows by genre, so Fringers can reduce their reading workload by sticking to genre(s) that appeal to them.

    I’ve been on the other side as well. I reviewed for CBC Manitoba in 2004, submitting 17 reviews (compared to 5 per year in Ottawa). I was asked to provide stars, but wasn’t happy doing so. I thought that 5 stars exaggerated the level of precision that I thought I could give (much less half stars which were even more exaggerated.) Furthermore, when I compared my personal star ratings with those given by my colleagues, I often disagreed with their ratings. But I usually agreed with their words.

    However, who was I kidding? I supplemented star ratings with a four-level rating system, only it was personal: not worth seeing, worth coming downtown, worth coming from out of town and worth coming 2000 kilometres. But what did that actually mean for the audience? For example, what if the show that I thought was so worthy was in a genre that they didn’t like?

    So I prefer to review without stars.

    Most reviews in Ottawa have no star ratings. Performer nirvana, right?

    Let’s look a little further. The Ottawa Citizen sends one reviewer to the Ottawa Fringe. ONE! They contract Patrick Langston to review a dozen shows, which he does in a timely fashion, bless his heart.

    Capital Critics Circle are also professional reviewers (with a couple of interns in training). Most of them have decades of experience reviewing for publication. But their reviews are on a web site, not on local press or radio. They try to cover as much as they can, but their last review came out after the show being reviewed had finished its run.

    FullyFringed reviews every show at the Ottawa Fringe. Reviews are timely for the audience; they’re based on the first performance, and reviews are written and edited within 25 hours. But FullyFringed is a web site and its reviewers and editors are volunteers.

    Visitorium also reviews everything, but in their first year they had a smaller team of reviewers than FullyFringed, so it took longer for them to review every show. Again, reviewers and editor are volunteers.

    So where do performers go when given the choice of this starless performer heaven?

    Montreal.

    Ottawa is a small Fringe: 52 shows as opposed to 172 at the Winnipeg Fringe. Total paid attendance is 12,100 versus 100,000 for Winnipeg. 25 sellouts as opposed to 175.

    Montreal has a bigger audience, though nowhere near those for Edmonton, Winnipeg, or even Toronto. It has more prestigious awards that have big name sponsors behind them. Would you rather put a Just for Laughs award from Montreal in your press release, or an Outstanding award from Ottawa?

    And Montreal media use the star system.

    Continued...

    ReplyDelete
  2. ...


    There’s another city where there are starless reviews: Toronto. Mooney on Theatre reviews every show without star ratings. They review every show. And their reviews are timely. As of this year, they publish all their reviews by end of day on the first Sunday of the Toronto Fringe.

    But their reviewers are volunteers, though some (all?) of their editors are professional.

    So what do performers at the Toronto Fringe quote in their tweets? N ratings from Now magazine. (For those not familiar, Now uses a 1 to 5 N rating scale, which are effectively stars). Rarely does a performer with a 4 or 5 N rating use quotable quotes from Mooney on Theatre reviews.

    As a dedicated Fringer, I’m prepared to read over a hundred reviews at the Ottawa Fringe. (I saw over 25 shows at the Ottawa Fringe and 60 at the Winnipeg Fringe.) But, guess what? I didn’t read all 344 reviews in the Winnipeg Free Press and on the CBC Manitoba web site. I checked out the 4 and 5 star reviews, which sent me to some shows I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. And I read most of the 3 star reviews. And some of those shows were brilliant. I also read reviews (regardless of star rating) when I had an open time slot and was trying to choose between shows. I chose based on words and genre.

    But I needed sleep to see 60 shows (especially after seeing 15 during the 25-hour Fringe). And a ranking system, no matter how crude, was an aid for choosing how many reviews to read.

    You don’t see 60 shows at the Winnipeg Fringe waiting for reviews. Before the Fringe, I’ve read the entire program, visited web sites, viewed performer promotional photos, seen a few videos. I entered the Winnipeg Fringe with over 50 shows on my A-List and another 20 on my B-List. These were wish lists, and subject to change. Each day, I based my choices on past experience, word of mouth from trusted friends, buzz on the street, quality of the performer’s pitch, schedule conflicts, and, yes, reviews. In all cases, my criteria are personal: Why do I Want to see This show. My goal is to get to see most of the shows that I want to see, while avoiding Five Star Feeding Frenzy sellouts on the last Friday and Saturday nights. (On those evenings I see other shows that AREN’T selling out.)

    I know of no instance where a media outlet has decided to abandon the star rating system. NONE. I don’t believe the readers would support it. Going from no ratings to ratings is a one-way street.

    Media at the bigger Fringes have star systems. Live with it, performers. However imperfect, stars provide a ranking system for readers to make choices. If we’re lucky, they actually read the words in the reviews. But 35,000 individuals attend the Winnipeg Fringe, buying 100,000 tickets. That’s an average of 3 shows per person. That person isn’t going to read 344 professional reviews to see only 3 shows.

    Ever since 1990 I’ve read and heard performers rail against reviews and star ratings. But guess what, folks? Reviews, and yes stars, build audience and produce sellouts. I remember the bad old days (only 4 years ago) when MOST shows at the Ottawa Fringe didn’t get any reviews. Zero, zip, nada! Ask Jon Paterson. He’ll tell you what a hell for performers that is.

    Reviews and star ratings bring bigger audiences to the Fringe circuit.

    I’ve told performers for years: don’t rely on reviews. Go out and sell your show. Talk to people. Tell them Why Whey Want to see Your show. Which is exactly what you do, Cameron.

    As Stephen Sim of The Crumbs says: if you want a good audience, give them a fucking great show.

    And stop bending my ear about star ratings and reviews.

    Love

    Brian

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