tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735133.post990101936636781604..comments2020-09-15T13:47:28.229-05:00Comments on GreyZelda Land: Windy City Times Review by Mary Shen BarnidgeRebeccaZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15464629645834665372noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735133.post-68018760972548050532008-01-18T11:10:00.000-06:002008-01-18T11:10:00.000-06:00I agree with your answer to "Fran's" question. It...I agree with your answer to "Fran's" question. It is not a perfectly positive response, but it profound uniqueness is worth the posting.<BR/><BR/>What it comes off as is an intellectual juxtaposition to most other critics who fail to have their own ideas about things. I secretly see some of them waiting for the first review to come out before they write their own. Many have grown lazy. I don't blame them. I couldn't want to be a critic. It sounds exhausting. I see Mary Shen going home, making a pot of herbal tea, daydreaming, then sleeping on it- for a week or two. She is an existentialist hermit-thinker. She wallows in her dreamy thoughts and seems to enjoy productions that allow her to think about her place as a human being on this planet we call earth. She finds colonies in small things. She is Laura Wingfield. I do not think she would ever react in this way to any tawdry affectations of theater. She's a dreamer, man! She sees things that most artists don't. <BR/><BR/>In fact, I think she found something in the film as a character that no one has been able to articulate. It is a review that actually makes you think about the idea of film rather than the film itself. She is actually the first critic to praise the film as an affective device rather than critique the quality because let's face it- everyone is a movie critic. She embraces realism, yet she does not try to belittle what has become of contemporary society's attachment to film because that is very real and here to stay. Therefore, she thought the film helped as a "cozy" tool offered to the audience to help invoke the cathartic ending of destruction. This "destruction" reminds me of the atheistic idea of the imperfections of the world being true signs that there is no god and that things evolve over bits of meteorite and bacteria only to be destroyed by the cosmos the earth came from. She was not there to judge the editing or the beats or the set pieces. She was there to think about the purpose of this story being mounted for people today. The purpose of experiencing this right here, right now. If people actually thought about things before they opened their mouths (or typed on their keyboards), we might eventually become a more positive and nurturing community. <BR/><BR/>What I got from her about the actors is that she thought that they weren't as over the top as they are usually portrayed, which made for slower builds in emotion on the opening night - BUT- that the director wasn't worried about the typical things that come with this production- which I think is an interesting reaction.. (I personally don't agree with this one as I thought the emotional build was right on.) She went to another place that night. She might not have been watching or listening as hard or in the same way as the other critics, but you know how massage therapists take it as a compliment when their clients fall asleep on their table? Well, her ruminations could equal the trip GZ would like all their audience members to go on.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735133.post-33634156337123797562008-01-17T16:07:00.000-06:002008-01-17T16:07:00.000-06:00Thank you, Dan!RZThank you, Dan!<BR/><BR/>RZRebeccaZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464629645834665372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735133.post-75670974719278645072008-01-17T15:46:00.000-06:002008-01-17T15:46:00.000-06:00Several of Mary's reviews (she's seen every GreyZe...Several of Mary's reviews (she's seen every GreyZelda show) have been full of more criticism, but if you read her reviews week to week of all the shows she's reviewed ... she doesn't fall into the trap of lambasting theatre companies, it seems to me, on a general basis. She's definitely a friend of the Storefront community all the way around and I think that she deserves as much recognition for her writing talents as we can give her on this meager blog. She writes really well and uses words that speak to intelligent people, don't you think, Fran?<BR/><BR/>In fact, I've heard from some that they don't think this is the most positive of reviews, but I think it gives a potential audience a fair insight, in my personal opinion.<BR/><BR/>RZRebeccaZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464629645834665372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735133.post-42504969185445867492008-01-17T15:16:00.000-06:002008-01-17T15:16:00.000-06:00Curse the fates, Rebecca - it doesn't look like I'...Curse the fates, Rebecca - it doesn't look like I'll be able to get out to see <I>View</I> after all - best of luck for the rest of the run, and tell Kelly I said hello!Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02365025489601070891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735133.post-25510954769672632022008-01-17T14:28:00.000-06:002008-01-17T14:28:00.000-06:00...just asking: Would you have praised Shen's ever......just asking: Would you have praised Shen's ever-eloquent writing were the review in-"accurate" - i.e. negative ?Franhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10335234314761168369noreply@blogger.com