Meet the Theatre Company with 400 Critics

Some people loathe them, but one community theatre in South Australia absolutely loves them. The Tea Tree Players enjoy reading reviews of their performance so much they ask members of the audience to sharpen their pencils.

The Players invite critics from Theatre Association SA and the State Magazine Encore, to review each of their seven opening nights each year, and according to the company’s Business Manager Don Stuart, “the members are always interested to read their views. Although everyone knows in every instance it is only the opinion of one person, we also acknowledge it is that of someone qualified to make such a judgement.”

However, they have expanded this critics’ base to include audience members. Everyone who attends is provided with a voting slip, to enable them to assess the performance of every actor, by nominating a score for each from 1 up to 10. This is extended to include their opinion of the director and the set design.

Up to one third of the audience of 120 each time complete the voting, and are encouraged to provide comments. Overall some three to four hundred “critics” have their say at every production.

The returns are tallied and at the end of the year those with the highest score are listed in the top three in each category, and in the early part of the following year an “Oscar type” afternoon is held. The names of successful individuals are inscribed on the theatre’s honour board.

“In the recent past it has been suggested that these local “critics” do not serve a useful purpose, as they do not readily appreciate the subtle nuances the qualified critic can bring to every assessment,” Don said. “They are just as important because they are the ones who keep coming back, they let their views be known to those providing the entertainment, who at their peril may choose to ignore their input,” he said.

The strategy seems to work.

 “We sell 99% of our tickets all of the time, most of them months and months in advance, and as we are in the retail business and can get a regular input from those we are providing for, it can only be advantageous to have the comments from the customers on a regular basis,” he said.

This article originally appeared in the May / June 2011 print edition of Stage Whispers.