Introduction

Welcome. Instead of telling about me now, I'll be adding personal details as relevant. And I must say that I have no meaningful connection with any Austin theater companies (a fairly complete list can be found here). And I definitely do not have any affiliation with the Austin Chronicle nor the Austin American Statesman, the two main papers of Austin with theatrical reviews.

I've been thinking of doing something like this for many years. Austin has a strangely thriving theatrical community. Lots of people with lots of energy and talent put together a great many shows year-round. I applaud each and everyone person, for doing such work is vastly more difficult than almost any non-theater person can imagine.

But Austin has a problem in its theater community. It started a long time ago and has only gotten worse in the passing decades. And it's this: Austin theater sucks.

There are many reasons for this, but chief amongst them is a general acceptance of sub-par work. That is the purpose of this blog, to raise the bar. Without honest and conscientious criticism, Austin's theater community has sunk to a small group of people slapping each other on the backs with congratulations for plays that drive the main-stream person away to watch reality TV.

When a play is produced with no threat of real criticism, the crew stops striving. And when you set your sites low, you're bound to hit your target and accomplish what will be at best a mediocre production.

So while my tone may come off as harsh and angry (yep, I'm often very angry when forced to sit through three hours of abysmally bad work), ultimately I'm striving to make the theatrical world in Austin a better place. And when it becomes better, then you'll stop lamenting about how hard it is to get people to come and see your play!