tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12657288.post113235397450336517..comments2024-01-07T06:59:04.212-05:00Comments on The Playgoer: Chicago off-Loops get a breakPlaygoerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994724588504353485noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12657288.post-1133702363357140042005-12-04T08:19:00.000-05:002005-12-04T08:19:00.000-05:00I appreciated Playgoer's concise suggestion of a d...I appreciated Playgoer's concise suggestion of a difference between Chicago's attitude toward theater and New York's. I get the impression, from occasional visits to an actor friend in Chicago, that theater there is integrated into the life and thinking of the city in a down-to-earth way; though commercial productions are done there, they don't distort the perception of everything else. Whereas in New York, all the attention paid to Broadway feeds (and is fed by) a kind of bigger-is-better mentality. There's also (though I hesitate to say it, lest anyone I've worked with take it as a criticism) a tendency to think that New York is the capital of American theater and that if you've done a show here you've necessarily accomplished something--a gilt-by-association principle. To be blunt, I've seen more bad theater here in New York than I saw in Dallas, Texas. No doubt Chicago has its share of poorly-done shows, but I sense a little more of a workmanlike devotion to craft there and a little more modesty about what they're doing.<BR/><BR/>I'm not sure I've managed to say quite what I mean, but this is the best I can do in a short time. Writing, like theater, is hard...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12657288.post-1132765822502297592005-11-23T12:10:00.000-05:002005-11-23T12:10:00.000-05:00Seems as though Playgoer has retired. :-(Seems as though Playgoer has retired. :-(Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com