Saturday, February 7, 2009
Theater Invitation of the Day
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 1:19 PM
My boyfriend just forwarded me your article from, eh hem, the stranger, that offers suggestions on "10 things theaters need to do to save themselves". I will be up there this weekend visiting. I would love to sit and talk to you about your article and how demoralizing and uninformed your ideas are. For one thing, you should start by spelling it correctly. It's "theatre" not "theater". We are not talking about a multiplex in Renton.
Courtesy of Mark F from East Bay, California.
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1
Brendan, tell Mark that the paper of record does "theater" reviews, not "theatre" reviews. The British spelling of theater is the most pretentious crap out there, and only serves to highlight how clueless theatre people are about their audiences. (But not theater people.)
5
People who insist on spelling it "theatre" instead of "theater" are usually the same people who prefer to be called "artistes" instead of "pretentious douchebags".
And doesn't that whole argument strike at (what I see as) the core of your "10 Things" article -- namely that theaters need to stop alienating themselves from their audiences in the name of what they believe to be True Art?
And doesn't that whole argument strike at (what I see as) the core of your "10 Things" article -- namely that theaters need to stop alienating themselves from their audiences in the name of what they believe to be True Art?
6
Dear Mark F:
1. It's "forwarded to me" not "forwarded me" -- you are not the object, duh.
2. It's "ahem," not "eh hem."
3. It's "The Stranger" not "the stranger," and in fact italics are standard for naming newspapers.
4. It's "save themselves.'" not "save themselves'."
5. "I would love to sit and talk to you about your article and how demoralizing and uninformed your ideas are" = typical passive agressive faux politeness.
My Mama said if you want to insult someone, be clear about it.
6. "For one thing, you should start by spelling it correctly."
The use of "it" without a prior antecedent is clumsy and vague.
7. That would be "not 'theater.'" not "not 'theater'." Putting punctuation inside the quote mark is a sure sign of a lousy education.
8. "We are not talking about a multiplex in Renton." Actually, many movie theaters are called "Theatre whatever." Both theater and theatre are acceptable in modern American English today, and there is no usage by which one means live theater and the other the silver screen.
9. That would be Mark F. not Mark F
I've really loved sitting and talking with you about how uninformed your writing is and how demoralizing it is to think you failed grammar school.
If you're going to be pretentious, please make sure you have the grammar skills to pull it off. And btw -- don't ever fuck with Seattleites and make errors of grammar, recycling, or tobacco use -- we're pit bulls in our enforcement of all the smaller rules.
1. It's "forwarded to me" not "forwarded me" -- you are not the object, duh.
2. It's "ahem," not "eh hem."
3. It's "The Stranger" not "the stranger," and in fact italics are standard for naming newspapers.
4. It's "save themselves.'" not "save themselves'."
5. "I would love to sit and talk to you about your article and how demoralizing and uninformed your ideas are" = typical passive agressive faux politeness.
My Mama said if you want to insult someone, be clear about it.
6. "For one thing, you should start by spelling it correctly."
The use of "it" without a prior antecedent is clumsy and vague.
7. That would be "not 'theater.'" not "not 'theater'." Putting punctuation inside the quote mark is a sure sign of a lousy education.
8. "We are not talking about a multiplex in Renton." Actually, many movie theaters are called "Theatre whatever." Both theater and theatre are acceptable in modern American English today, and there is no usage by which one means live theater and the other the silver screen.
9. That would be Mark F. not Mark F
I've really loved sitting and talking with you about how uninformed your writing is and how demoralizing it is to think you failed grammar school.
If you're going to be pretentious, please make sure you have the grammar skills to pull it off. And btw -- don't ever fuck with Seattleites and make errors of grammar, recycling, or tobacco use -- we're pit bulls in our enforcement of all the smaller rules.
7
One of the more commonly accepted distinctions in the industry between "theatre" and "theater" is that "theatre" is the art form, and "theater" is the physical venue it is performed in.
Of course, the only time anyone (industry or not) should really care is when the word is in the title--for example, Live Girls! Theater is "er," while ACT is "re" (A Contemporary Theatre). So as long as everyone's name is spelled right, everyone should just chill.
Of course, the only time anyone (industry or not) should really care is when the word is in the title--for example, Live Girls! Theater is "er," while ACT is "re" (A Contemporary Theatre). So as long as everyone's name is spelled right, everyone should just chill.
8
Not to defend the guy or anything, but putting the period outside of the quotation mark is a sure sign of being British/Canadian/whatever, not of being uneducated.
9
Dear Brendan,
Please give me the courtesy of a personal audience so I can get all Christian Bale on your ass. You stupid motherfucker. Love your column!
Please give me the courtesy of a personal audience so I can get all Christian Bale on your ass. You stupid motherfucker. Love your column!
10
I've always used theater to refer to an actual building (the place where a play is put on) and theatre to refer to, uh, "the genre of entertainment wherein one goes to see plays". I don't have any reason to suspect that that's the correct usage, but that's what I do...
12
Dear letter-writer: Do you use the spellings "foetus," "centre," "haemoglobin," "esquimaux," or "defence?" No? Then shut the fuck up about "theatre." That spelling is only for Limeys and other pretentious twats.
20
Comment? Vous voulez dire «dans le français», n'est-ce pas?
«Français» est masculin, et il est écrivé avec un «f» miniscule.
«Français» est masculin, et il est écrivé avec un «f» miniscule.
21
Theatre is an affectation by people trying to make something better than it is. It also happens to be the British spelling. If you commonly spell color colour or spell specialize specialise, realize spelled realise you're more than welcome to use "theatre" otherwise you're just using it as an affectation to be all hoity-toity.
22
The American Heritage Dictionary allows "preference" to decide the spelling of the word. It has nothing to do with architecture, movies, or being British.
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