HowlRound: After my article on playwriting and parenting got folks gabbing about the matter in the comments section, Polly Carl asked me to consider writing an advice column on the subject for HowlRound. While it’s true that I am indeed both a parent and a playwright, it’s also true that I’m fledging at both and in no position to be doling out advice to anyone. And yet although I’ve never met Polly Carl in person, I am Facebook friends with her and can tell from her pictures she is not someone you say no to. So with fear and trembling, I said yes.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Parenting & Playwriting: Sharing Bad Reviews with My Children
HowlRound: After my article on playwriting and parenting got folks gabbing about the matter in the comments section, Polly Carl asked me to consider writing an advice column on the subject for HowlRound. While it’s true that I am indeed both a parent and a playwright, it’s also true that I’m fledging at both and in no position to be doling out advice to anyone. And yet although I’ve never met Polly Carl in person, I am Facebook friends with her and can tell from her pictures she is not someone you say no to. So with fear and trembling, I said yes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
There's not necessarily much I can relate to in this article, but it was still interesting to read because it contained a glimpse of what being in theatre and being a parent is like. Regardless of whether you're a parent or not, dealing with a bad review can not be fun. Moping around for a few days is ineveitable, but after that it's best to think about what you can improve, or how you can turn your feelings over the bad review into positive motivation. Also, a reviewer is one person and their review reflects just that: one person's opinion. In the end the people who really matter are those in our families, like the author's daughter, who will love us and empathize with us no matter what. (Sorry this comment is so touchy- feely. The end.)
I typically envisioned playwrights as being single, gay, brilliant men living vicariously through the characters they write into their works. I never considered what life would be like as a part-time playwright and full-time mother. It's one thing to deal with a bad review, but it's a completely different thing to deal with it for yourself and then deal with it in a way someone living completely outside the adult sphere will understand. Other people's opinions hurt sometimes, and I give Trieschmann a lot of credit for being able to handle the stressful double life of being someone's else's shelter and having no shelter of her own from other people's criticisms.
Post a Comment