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Visit the Internet Broadway Database at http://www.ibdb.com/. In the search engine, enter the name of a popular play or musical to find its Broadway production history. Look at the shows currently running on Broadway. How many are musicals? How many are plays? What is the ratio of musicals to straight plays? Why do you suppose the ratio is the way it is? Compare ticket revenue grosses of musicals to that of straight plays. A recent phenomenon, why are so many straight plays starring actors from film and television? |
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Go to TCG Member Theatres link http://www.tcg.org/about/membership/member_list.cfm and select three member theatres. Find the following information: what is the theatre's location, what shows are being performed this season, who is the artistic director, and how long they have been in existence. |
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Visit the website of a college or university theatre department, perhaps the one at your own college or university (some other suggestions are listed below). What kind of information is provided on the website? Is the information directed toward the general public or prospective students? What shows are being performed this season?
Suggestions:
http://drama.yale.edu/
http://www.tisch.nyu.edu/page/home.html |
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Read some of the theatre reviews at the following sites:
http://theater.nytimes.com/pages/theater/index.html
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/theater
If possible, read two or more reviews for the same show. Do the writers sound more like reviewers or critics? Now visit the site http://movies.go.com/ (click on the "Reviews" tab) and read some of the film and movie reviews. Compare the reviews. How are theatre and film reviews similar or different? |
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Theatre, film and TV producers will distort reviews for use in their advertisements. Find an ad for a movie, TV show, or play in a newspaper that uses such quotations. Do an Internet search to locate the original review. What was the context of the quotation? Was the quotation used responsibly, or does it distort the meaning? |
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Reflect on critical criteria and the three questions that critics ask to aid in arriving at informed judgment. Go online and find a professional review (Broadwayworld.com provides links to professional reviews as does Playbill.com). Identify how the critic addresses each of the three questions. |
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What is an audience member's relationship to a reviewer or critic? Just because a critic dislikes a performance, is the audience supposed to automatically dislike it too? How does this relate to the audience's independent judgment as noted in the text? Explain using specific examples. Using your Flixster smartphone app, do you make a distinction between critic reviews and Flixster user reviews? |
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Go to the Flixster app on your smartphone or go online to Flixster – Rotten Tomatoes. Choose a film now playing in theatres that you want to see. What might be some of the advantages and disadvantages of reading reviews and criticisms before going to a performance? How might it affect the way you experience the performance? Is there any reason to read criticism after a performance? |
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