(Robynn Rodriguez and Christopher Liam Moore in the Berkeley Rep production. Photo by Jenny Graham.)
This week I explored a whole new mode of theater criticism:
the podcast! I’ve never recorded
one before, and I believe SF Weekly
has never done a theater review podcast before. Luckily, I had Benjamin Wachs, fellow SF Weekly writer and theater aficionado, to help me out, as
co-critic and producer. (When you
listen, it’s not hard to tell who’s more experienced in radio!) The two of us saw Ghost Light, the Berkeley Rep play directed by Jonathan Moscone
that’s loosely based on his own reckoning with his father’s assassination. (His father is George Moscone, the
major of San Francisco who, along with Harvey Milk, was shot in 1978 and whose
legacy has been somewhat overshadowed by Milk’s.)
The only part we planned was the introduction; the rest
emerged naturally. We spent about
15 minutes recording and then two hours cutting and editing. I know Benjamin did more work on it
than I did, but for me the whole process took about as long as, or maybe
slightly less long than, it does to write a review. I think we could have been
even more efficient had I prepared for the podcast in the way I do for an
article: re-reading all my notes and culling usable observations into a single
page. Benjamin said that flubs are
par for the course no matter how experienced you are, but it was naïve to think
I magically wouldn’t need to do much prep work at all.
Editing was a revealing experience. When you have to listen to something
you’ve said over and over again, to delete all your false starts and overused
expressions (I’m evidently a big fan of “right!”), you start to pay attention
to your speech almost as though it’s a musical score. I was surprised by how often I spoke in an artificially deep
voice and how long I tended to pause before every single word. When I did vary my tone, however, the
result was much, much more effective than I thought it would be. It made me wonder if there’s any way I
could write my reviews more like the way I speak. I probably could to some degree, but it’s also possible that
it wouldn’t work as well on the page; line readings and lines themselves are
two different animals!
Benjamin and I had similar opinions of the show, so the
transition from monologue to dialogue brought less debate than different ways
of saying the same thing. We often
finished each other’s thoughts; it was like having a relief critic. I look forward to seeing how the
dynamic changes on shows about which we disagree. (I wimp out in debates, though, so we’ll have to see…)
One aspect I’m concerned about is how much easier it is to
be snarky when I talk than it is when I write. In-print Lily would have deemed much of what I said
unprofessional. My instinct is
that different media have different standards, but I don’t know how to
articulate exactly how or why. Is
it acceptable to have separate personas for print and radio? I’m not sure. But maybe this is another area in which more prep work could
help.
All qualms aside, I do have reason to believe this won’t be
the only podcast. I’d love to make
it a regular item, maybe once a month.
As I look into which show would work well for the form next, I’d love to
hear your thoughts on how we could improve.
Ghost Light continues through Feb. 18; info here.
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