I am tendering my official resignation as a blogger-critic. It has taken me two months to decide this, and this post was going to be a long diatribe about the personal reasons behind it (which I did write and can be found here instead), but instead I have decided to write down the reasons why reviewing theatre got the axe.
Hopefully this will make other bloggers sit back and reasess why they are blogging and whether reviewing is the right thing for them to be doing.
Passion
It probably comes as no surprise that you need passion to become a decent blogger, not only for watching theatre but also for writing about theatre. The first alarm for me was when theatre going started to feel like a chore. However, the problem wasn’t with the actual theatre going experience, but the fact that I wasn’t necessarily seeing the things I wanted to see, and was dreading having to write about it the next day. This, exacerbated by the time constraints placed by most theatre reviews websites and publications, meant that I would rush through a by-the-book templated review that had no passion in the writing or opinions. Hopefuly this means that I can return to the lovely prospect of seeing theatre without obligation.
Shortened version: If you aren’t passionate about seeing theatre (and all kinds of theatre) AND about writing for theatre, then don’t bother.
A unique voice
At last count there are approximately 500 million theatre bloggers within London (also, studies show that almost 85% of statistic are made up). Within that there are some talented and dedicated writers. Ought to be Clowns, West End Whingers, A Younger Theatre and Carousel of Fantasies (no matter how much I disagree with the author) come to mind when it comes to well written, well thought out criticism, and in the case of the first two, a nice dose of wit to accompany.
However, out of the 499,999,996 others there is an awful lot of ‘meh’ that exists out there as well. Another realisation was that I was firmly in that portion, as I failed to find a unique voice amongst the crowd.
Shortened version: Find a unique voice that differentiates you from the sea of bloggers. If you don’t, you’ll probably drown.
Respect for my peers
I’m going to make a confession. In the past six months I have probably read three theatre reviews on blogs. If I don’t even read these reviews, then why should I expect anyone to read mine? I descended into a realm of arrogance that made me assume I didn’t need to read the work of my peers, when in reality, it was probably one of the main contributors to my second point about unique voice. In fact, the only reviews I did read were to make me angry enough to write.
It holds true within any industry that you constantly need to look at the work of your peers to make sure you are remaining relevant and engaging, and not just parroting what someone else is saying. In the tech industry, the same mistake was made by Microsoft, who refused to look at the work other companies were doing. As a result, they are now playing a huge game of catch-up to remain relevant within the industry.
Shortened version: Read the work of your peers. It will make you a better writer and keep your work in perspective.
The stagnation of theatre blogging
This is something that I spoke about at Twespians Fringe in March, and if I were to pick one, my main reason for stopping. To me, theatre blogging is becoming slightly stagnant. In my opinion, the main cause of this is that there are too many people reviewing shows and not writing about theatre in a more general way. At the moment, theatre commentary is mainly covered by the majors, like The Stage (Shenton’s View comes to mind) and Guardian bloggers, with a few noteable exceptions in the blogging realm like A Younger Theatre. The more bloggers we have talking about the future of theatre, innovation within theatre and problems within the industry, the quicker we can push the industry forward.
To draw a parallel, in design there are a plethora of writers who write about the industry and where it needs to be going (look at A List Apart for an example). They pull from all sources of inspiration, write about it and then get on stage and talk at conferences, meetups and barcamps. In turn, more people hear/read about this, form their own opinion, and start writing about the industry as well. As a result, the industry has moved forward in leaps and bounds within the last five to ten years.
We could do the same for theatre.
My suggestion? Take a week and pick an issue that you feel passionately about, or something cool you saw in another industry that you can tie back into theatre. Craft a post over a number of days (without seeing any shows) and then post it. Chances are you’ll get more people reading it than your ordinary reviews posts.
Shortened version: Don’t only write reviews. Branch out into commentary, opinion and awesomeness within theatre.
While this means that I will officially stop writing reviews as of today. However, if you still want to invite me to your show, please do. If I see something that I think is worth writing about, I’ll still write about it. However, it won’t include a star-rating, have the word ‘review’ in it and could possibly go off on a million and one tangents. Who knows, it may even include some pretty pictures.
So, in conclusion, I am officially stopping my aspirations to be a blogger-critic. I am now going to officially start my tenure as a theatre blogger. Who blogs about theatre. Not just reviews it.
