Louis B and Caroline

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – Calgary Theatre Critics’ Awards

Critics Louis B. Hobson and Caroline Russell-King

Production Company/Theatre space – Community companies include 42nd Street Productions, Alberta Theatre Projects, Ammolite Opera, Broadway Across Canada, Calgary Fringe, Calgary Opera, Fire Exit, Forte Musical Theatre Guild, Front Row Centre, FLC Seniors, Full Circle Theatre, Ghost River, Handsome Alice, Lunchbox Theatre, Making Treaty 7, Morpheus, One Yellow Rabbit, Painted Fish, Rosebud School of the Arts, Theatre Calgary, The Shakespeare Company, Sage Theatre, Stage West, StoryBook Theatre, Swamp Donkey, University of Calgary, Workshop Theatre, Unicorn Collective, Verb Theatre and Vertigo Theatre. 

They see shows in The Arts Commons, Pumphouse Theatres, Beddington Arts Centre, Vertigo Theatres, West Village Theatre, The Jubilee Auditorium, The Grand, Stage West, community centers, arts centers, high schools, universities, colleges, gymnasiums, churches, restaurants, strip malls, and parks.

Length – They average 75 – 80 shows a year. To book, travel, see, write a first draft, have it edited, write final draft, plus Calgary Critics’ Award time they spend about 700 hours each year.

Genre/s – Musical, tragedy, drama, farce, melodrama, opera, comedy, absurdist…

Premise – Recording, acknowledging, and celebrating excellence in the theatre. Supporting and promoting the theatre community and companies.

Why this? Why now? – The role of the critic in theatre production is different than audience opinion. Excellence deserves to be recognized – especially in an art form that’s impermanent.

Curiosities – Will the world be a better or a worse place if or when journalism and arts criticism disappears in print? Do audiences/general public value the POV of the critic? Do artists? Do people appreciate that they can see the micro to the macro, from the smallest gesture or change in lights on stage. Do folks know each show is reviewed in context to the work being done both that season and historically considering the current political and cultural factors as a backdrop?  

Notable Moment – Louis won a Betty Mitchell Theatre Award for lifetime contribution to theatre. Caroline had her book on dramaturgy published last year.

Notable writing – Louis has been writing reviews for theatre and film for over 50 years. Caroline has been writing reviews since 2018. Louis also writes theatre preview articles. Caroline doesn’t write previews but, in the past, has written postcard profiles of artists and the occasional memorial article. Louis writes in the classic form and Caroline writes in truncated style (information that could be gleaned from a postcard). Louis’ style takes into consideration the reader who is most likely to be the general public. Caroline’s style is one of analytics which skews towards the industry reader. Louis is known for his finding the positives and ignoring the negatives and Caroline is more of the “bad cop”. Louis tends to focus more on story, acting, and directing. Caroline’s focus is more on script choice, playwriting skills, and design. Louis is published in the Calgary Herald and reviews for TV and radio. Caroline writes online at www.postcardreviews.com.

Both Louis and Caroline are produced and published playwrights. Louis is also a teacher, director, sometimes actor. Caroline is a dramaturg, sometimes teacher. Both adjudicate competitions. Louis is a legend at adjudicating live performances in civic and provincial festivals. Caroline reads scripts for national and international playwriting competitions.

Caroline is a member of the International Association of Theatre Critics, the Playwrights Guild of Canda, the Dramatist and Literary Managers of the Americas and is the co-Canadian Ambassador for the Dramatist Guild of America. Louis has interviewed many of the top actors in Hollywood, Broadway and the West End.

Notable performances – Louis is the much better public speaker having worked in radio and television for decades. Caroline will read cue cards but is awkward on stage.

Notable design/Production – Louis’ articles are accompanied by beautiful industry photographs and Caroline posts the cover of programs and playbills. Neither is detail oriented, both make spelling mistakes, especially with names. Caroline’s deficiency also includes not seeing the difference between words like form and from in her own writing.

Notable direction – Louis takes direction from his editor at the Herald. Caroline also takes direction from her editor. In ties for the award nominations and winners, Caroline defers to Louis.  

One reason to see this show – These two see the most shows of any other people in the city. They also have a background in working in theatre, Louis for 65 years and Caroline for 44.

Fun Facts – Before they met Louis started a company with Caroline’s ex-husband that did dinner theatre in the 1970’s. Louis gave her second husband (love of her life) his first acting review in high school in 1980. They do not read each other’s reviews before posting/publishing but often have the same point of view, eerily, often using the same words.

Things that make our lives easier-

Invite us. Most theatres do, but some rely on press releases and some just assume we’ll show up and get annoyed when we don’t.

Be flexible. Many companies have openings on the same night – we have had as many as 6 for the same night. We’re sorry if you have a very short run and we may not get to the performances early enough for our deadlines or your post-opening publicity.

Know that on rare occasions we can’t get to every show. If you want to be considered for nominations and awards, consider offering us access to your archival videos.

Provide us with a hard copy of the program. This means we aren’t juggling screens when writing reviews and we have references when it comes to the end of the season. It doesn’t have to be fancy – any printed handout will do.

Help us identify artists by putting their photos in the program. One company emails us post show to remind/tell us about which understudies went on.

Know that if you hire us in any capacity on a specific show (actor/consultant/dramaturg) we are ethically can’t review that particular production.

Understand we don’t like writing “bad” reviews anymore than you like getting them. (We have had our share too.)

Out of the 30+ companies there is one that paid/reserved our parking in paid parking lots and two companies this year that gave us free intermission beverages – we appreciate this.

Tickets held at the box office are best. We are juggling 80 tickets by e-mail, Eventbrite, or tickets via phone, printed, scanned by stamp…

AWARDS come out this evening.