Friday, May 4, 2012

The 2012 Bay One Acts Festival, at the Boxcar

(Sarah Moser in Three Little Dumplings Go Bananas, written by Megan Cohen and produced by Threshold. Photo by Chris Alongi.)


Reviewing an entire festival of plays definitely posed some structural challenges:  Ought I write a detailed review of each of its ten plays? How could I do so without the article feeling list-y? Should I instead just discuss the event's mission and general vibe? If so, would the article still be a review?


Instead, I took an in-between route: beginning with some general observations and then discussing the most successful one-acts in detail. I worry, though, that this choice skews the review: If I don't analyze what I disliked about the other shows, does the article give the false impression that my experience was more uniformly positive than it was?


In the end, I felt that because these shows were all produced by relatively small companies, lauding those that really deserved it makes more of a difference than picking apart flawed shows. Readers ought to know about playwrights and indie theater companies whose work transcends; trumpeting their achievements is a critic's most exciting duty.


BOA 2012 continues through May 12; info here.

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