Why are you using aliases?
Because we work in theater, and we don’t want to damage our prospects or relationships with our honest reflection.
Shouldn’t we just have courage of our convictions? This is a question we grapple with all the time! And some of our reviewers choose to just use their own names. But we want to keep the option open because we think that theater people are the best equipped to talk about theater, but who also have the most to lose by criticizing work. So far, we’ve agreed that the value of the anonymous conversation is worth more than identifying ourselves, but we’re always in conversation. If you’d like to push us on it, please do so in the comments, or email us or comment on our facebook page!
However, we do try to be accountable in a few ways, firstly by saying what’s in our pockets (what we’re bringing to the table that makes us biased, because we’re all biased.)
Secondly, by providing general bios that let you know how we identify and what we do in theater.
Why do you review in the middle of a run?
Our reviews are not designed to help audiences decide whether they should see a show or not, although we understand that some people might use them that way.
Our real goal is to take the private conversations that we were having about theater and make them public because we think that people who make theater have lots of constructive feedback that can help other people who make theater improve their work. Our feedback is really geared at the people who made the work, and other theater people who are interested in how people might be talking about it.
Why do you have two reviewers?
We usually have two reviewers in conversation because we believe so strongly that these opinions are subjective. We know that we have personal biases and we don’t want to pass our individual reactions off as definitive or as expertise.
In a perfect world, we would have two reviewers and a lot of comments. But we are guessing that for the same reason that we use aliases when we write, people might be reluctant to give honest feedback in a public forum, and we get that. But we hope that having at least two different reviewers will help us reflect on how what we bring into the theater affects what we see.
Can I write for Bonaly?
Email us!
Why isn’t my question answered here?
Let’s answer it here! Email us!
bonaly 