Because Community Theater Matters
--Welcome to Orlando Theater Reviews!
The purpose of this website is to acknowledge and highlight the tremendous amount and quality of the work done by the actors, directors, producers, costumers, set designers, construction crews, and all the other backstage people working in the Greater Orlando area. Most Community theaters don't widely publicize their productions and rely on word-of-mouth from their workers and social media updates; this site aims to be a one-stop shop for most of the theater offerings in the area as well as reviews for those shows.
Constructive criticism on Community theater is sadly lacking locally - usually news articles are about the show, but not a review of how it's being done, spotlighting the best parts and pointing out negatives where they appear.
Here you'll also find a calendar of the shows ongoing for the theaters being reviewed, something else not available online without going to each theater individually. Eventually, the page will show even the theaters not being reviewed and aims to be the center of local theater information.
Theaters I'm not reviewing fall into three categories: those professional and semi-professional (i.e. paid acting) that ARE being reviewed routinely by the Orlando Sentinel's Matt Palm and the Orlando Weekly; the few approaching professional levels that aren't always reviewed elsewhere but don't really require additional help such as Icehouse Theater in Mt. Dora, CFCarts in Winter Park, and Osceola Arts in Kissimmee (These venues frequently sell out and offer top-of-scale productions - any of these are worth a visit on any given show), and theaters predominately featuring children (reviewing children acting seems rude at best).
I hope you enjoy the page, and especially the rich local Community Theater experience!
- Cypher Incognito, reviewer
Update for 4-10-2021:
The Little Radical Theatrics website is offline, and their FB page hasn't been updated since March 1st. If someone representive or with knowledge of the theater's future can advise, it would be appreciated.
My last update 3 weeks ago brought no responses from the community at large, although traffic without new reviews to drive interest has been...slow. I'll leave the request below active for now.
The calendar has been updated for all currently proposed productions - and the COVID uncertainty has not changed; between the 6 theaters I follow, only 3 have productions with firm dates, and 2 others have shows 'sometime in July'. None of the theaters have two shows scheduled at this time - June is empty, and there's nothing at all after July. It's not unusual to announce new seasons during summer, so I'm hoping the calendar fills up as the weather goes hot and rainy.
***
On a different note: One of the premises for being a community theater critic was to provide a stage for reviews, believing that the actors and crews would appreciate the good reviews (and some would like constructive criticism and most would not, which is generally true in most cases). And while the past 18 months of running this site have been instructive, what I've learned most of all is that the base premise is false. Actors here seem to enjoy the process, and the applause, then move on to the next show. Yes, a local Matt "Palm D'Or" award will certainly bring a grin, but it's almost exclusively given to professional, paid theater groups, with an occasional exception. Individual annual awards from a given theater are sought after to an extent, but reviews seem meaningless. Actors here haven't 'grown up' with them (so to speak), and so haven't developed the taste for them.
The upshot is - the future and longevity of the site is in question. Feel free to email me at orderlandotheaterreviews@gmail.com with an opinion. I currently intend to continue until theater reaches a level closer to normal, then decide. So tell me - what do YOU think?
-CI
**************************************************************************
Friends, it's working. All of these theaters, casts and crews deserve a little love, and the more word gets out, the more they'll get. THANK YOU for all your help, and keep it up!
Also - you can follow me on Twitter @CypherIncognito .
Now - a favor. The only way this project will be successful is by word-of-mouth. We need our visitors to link to the reviews and help drive people to the site. By getting word out about the site, the Theaters themselves get promoted and do better - we all win. But messages from an anonymous person asking for a little social media mention simply isn't working - we need your help!
Thanks all! Break legs! -CI
The purpose of this website is to acknowledge and highlight the tremendous amount and quality of the work done by the actors, directors, producers, costumers, set designers, construction crews, and all the other backstage people working in the Greater Orlando area. Most Community theaters don't widely publicize their productions and rely on word-of-mouth from their workers and social media updates; this site aims to be a one-stop shop for most of the theater offerings in the area as well as reviews for those shows.
Constructive criticism on Community theater is sadly lacking locally - usually news articles are about the show, but not a review of how it's being done, spotlighting the best parts and pointing out negatives where they appear.
Here you'll also find a calendar of the shows ongoing for the theaters being reviewed, something else not available online without going to each theater individually. Eventually, the page will show even the theaters not being reviewed and aims to be the center of local theater information.
Theaters I'm not reviewing fall into three categories: those professional and semi-professional (i.e. paid acting) that ARE being reviewed routinely by the Orlando Sentinel's Matt Palm and the Orlando Weekly; the few approaching professional levels that aren't always reviewed elsewhere but don't really require additional help such as Icehouse Theater in Mt. Dora, CFCarts in Winter Park, and Osceola Arts in Kissimmee (These venues frequently sell out and offer top-of-scale productions - any of these are worth a visit on any given show), and theaters predominately featuring children (reviewing children acting seems rude at best).
I hope you enjoy the page, and especially the rich local Community Theater experience!
- Cypher Incognito, reviewer
Update for 4-10-2021:
The Little Radical Theatrics website is offline, and their FB page hasn't been updated since March 1st. If someone representive or with knowledge of the theater's future can advise, it would be appreciated.
My last update 3 weeks ago brought no responses from the community at large, although traffic without new reviews to drive interest has been...slow. I'll leave the request below active for now.
The calendar has been updated for all currently proposed productions - and the COVID uncertainty has not changed; between the 6 theaters I follow, only 3 have productions with firm dates, and 2 others have shows 'sometime in July'. None of the theaters have two shows scheduled at this time - June is empty, and there's nothing at all after July. It's not unusual to announce new seasons during summer, so I'm hoping the calendar fills up as the weather goes hot and rainy.
***
On a different note: One of the premises for being a community theater critic was to provide a stage for reviews, believing that the actors and crews would appreciate the good reviews (and some would like constructive criticism and most would not, which is generally true in most cases). And while the past 18 months of running this site have been instructive, what I've learned most of all is that the base premise is false. Actors here seem to enjoy the process, and the applause, then move on to the next show. Yes, a local Matt "Palm D'Or" award will certainly bring a grin, but it's almost exclusively given to professional, paid theater groups, with an occasional exception. Individual annual awards from a given theater are sought after to an extent, but reviews seem meaningless. Actors here haven't 'grown up' with them (so to speak), and so haven't developed the taste for them.
The upshot is - the future and longevity of the site is in question. Feel free to email me at orderlandotheaterreviews@gmail.com with an opinion. I currently intend to continue until theater reaches a level closer to normal, then decide. So tell me - what do YOU think?
-CI
**************************************************************************
Friends, it's working. All of these theaters, casts and crews deserve a little love, and the more word gets out, the more they'll get. THANK YOU for all your help, and keep it up!
Also - you can follow me on Twitter @CypherIncognito .
Now - a favor. The only way this project will be successful is by word-of-mouth. We need our visitors to link to the reviews and help drive people to the site. By getting word out about the site, the Theaters themselves get promoted and do better - we all win. But messages from an anonymous person asking for a little social media mention simply isn't working - we need your help!
Thanks all! Break legs! -CI
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