Seated for the New Works Festival in Palo Alto. #hellatheatre
By David John Chávez
@davidjchavez.bsky.social
761 Followers
354 Following
Brown drama guy. Bay Area theater critic/reporter @ SJ Mercury News, SF Chronicle, KQED, American Theatre Mag + others. Chair: American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association, 2X Pulitzer Drama Juror ('22-'23) GO SJ Sharks! IG: @davidjchavez #hellatheatre
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Once in a while, you're reminded of an '80s band and recall what made them so good. That's the case with The Go-Gos, who provided many awesome hits. For the @mercurynews.com, I reviewed #HeadOverHeels at City Lights in #SanJose. There are flaws, but the collection of voices is solid. #hellatheatre
Review: City Lights goes ‘Head Over Heels’ with Go-Go’s musical
A few technical glitches can’t spoil City Lights’ entertaining production of ‘Head Over Heels’ in San Jose.
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A solid production of #RichardIII is running in Saratoga, one of the most serene and picturesque spaces in the Bay Area. Outdoor theater at its finest. My review of Silicon Valley Shakes' production for the @mercurynews.com. #hellatheatre www.mercurynews.com/2025/07/30/r...
Reimagined ‘Richard III’ plays up ruler’s skulduggery
Silicon Valley Shakespeare’s production features nonbinary cast, film noir setting.
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Those aren’t reviews. Those are opinions, and they have their place and uses, but they do not substitute for deeply informed and engaging critical writing, which is a skill that takes time, practice, and experience to develop.
Life changes. Organisms/organizations need to adapt. I'm sure people go to crowdsourced info for reviews, like Goodreads, just like Yelp and others for restaurant reviews.
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Professional criticism is not the same as individual reviews. They can both be useful but criticism is a skill-based genre like any other writing. The yelpification of criticism isn’t evolution.
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Tuesday night curtain. Seated for #Home at ZSpace in #SanFrancisco, on the job for @kqedarts.bsky.social #hellatheatre
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The other day, a woman from Fargo ND told me her kids do original 1-act plays at their high school. This year, all the shows in the fest had the premise “What if the internet went out for 3 days?”
Massive props to whoever came up with that, a brilliant idea to get teens writing good plays in 2025.
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Murphy the friggin' dog.
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Power, position, and place are three different things, and before the year 2030, Imma need everybody in the American theater to understand that.
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Could that ever be on a t-shirt?
