We’re happy to announce the Chestnut Hill Local’s new partnership with Broad Street Review (BSR).
This week, readers will find the first entry of this pairing with a special treat for subscribers: an online-only review of Indecorous Theatre’s site-specific production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. The review is written by Gabrielle Kaplan-Meyer, a Northwest Philadelphia resident who often contributes to both publications.
We also invite you to join us as Chestnut Hill Local Interim Editor Wendy Rosenfield and Broad Street Review Editor-in-Chief Alaina Johns (plus a host of other notable Philadelphia arts and culture critics) team up for two new online workshops July 16 and 17.
These Zoom sessions are for anyone who wants to learn about the critic’s process.
The first workshop, slated for Wednesday, July 16, offers an introduction to the craft of reviewing, and as suitable for arts and culture lovers as it is for aspiring critics. After all, who hasn’t read a review and thought, “Did we even see the same thing?”
The second workshop, on Thursday, July 17, asks why we need “bad reviews.” As Johns said in her own BSR column, “Some writers, even those with long careers, still felt nervous about diving into review-writing because they didn't know how it would feel to write negative things about the work they saw. I understand this challenge, but I also know the truth: if you're afraid to write a "bad" review, you have no business reviewing at all.”
Bad Reviews will, as she says, “tell the truth about "bad" reviews, how to write them, why we all need them, and what it's really like to publish something that might make people mad.”
Tickets are a suggested $25 donation (or for $20 each you can take both classes), but there's a pay-what-you-can option, so nobody is turned away for lack of funds. Take one class or both, and you'll come away with a toolbox for cultural critique, plus tips for working with editors, PR professionals, and arts venues.
Visit Broadstreetreview.com to sign up.
