Bitter Gertrude

It’s already 2015? Seriously? OK, I need to make a rehearsal schedule for Richard 3 STAT. While I’m doing that, here’s something to look at.

On the excellent advice of fellow theatre blogger Jonathan Mandell, I give you my year-end retrospective: Bitter Gertrude’s most-read posts of 2014.

Clocking in at number one: Why You Didn’t Get Cast. “The pure, unvarnished truth about why you didn’t get the role.”

Second place goes to: The White Guy Problem. “This subset of white men cannot comprehend that ending street harassment is a more urgent issue than their desire to approach women whenever and however they like; that actual rape is a more urgent issue than their fear that one day someone might possibly accuse them of rape; that the killing of unarmed Black men (and BOYS) is a more urgent issue than their fear of Black “thugs”; that the killing of unarmed Black men is a more urgent issue than a few broken windows.”

Third place: Directing, Creative Freedom, and Vandalism. “There’s an entire subset of directors and producers who see the playwright as a necessary evil; a hindrance to their more important creative process, and who see the contract as something that exists more as a formality between the producer and the playwright than a legally-binding document that applies to their work. Here’s what they say.”

Fourth place: Six Things Playwrights Should Stop Doing. “Dear Goddess of Theatre, may none of the plays I read in 2014 have these characteristics.”

Fifth most-read post of 2014: The Class Divide in Theatre. “There’s no such thing as a study of diversity in ‘theatre,’ or gender parity in ‘theatre.’ We have studies of those things in wealthy theatres, but not in ‘theatre’ as a whole.”

Thank you all so much for reading Bitter Gertrude in 2014. Happy New Year, and have a truly fantastic 2015!