Cliché Watch: Stomping

This will be a recurring feature.  Clichés are dangerous only when we're not aware of them; they come into our brains easily and let us believe we are excellent because--and I think this is really the vital bit--we think we are inventing them.  When a white person on TV uses rap slang ironically he really thinks it will be funny or fresh.  He's terribly wrong.  So I'll use this feature to point out clichés as I see them, this is not the same as saying that the things I list are bad, they are just henceforth unusable.

So, Stomping.  I don't really know why, but it's very important to march and/or stomp in place in abstract or "avant garde" theater.  This is not nice to watch, let's stop it.  Yes, even in Harolds.  It's just a little bit stupid.  Maybe marching makes for a good warm-up...listen, I'm not really trying to say there's no place for stomping, just not onstage.

CP

I forgot to mention the most important review of all.  Last week I went through a big stack of the Audience Responses from the preview performances.  My part in this play is largely providing extra bodies in "crowd scenes" that really just mean that the other intern and I walk out and form a little couple on the catwalk upstage.  Well, the majority of the responses were very positive but no less than TWO remarked that the couple upstage was "Confusing and Pointless!"  So I've earned the nickname CP...and secretly hope it sticks.    

...And a few more

TimeOut Chicago,  Tribune, Chicago Stage Review.  I'm unlikely to keep up with them from now on, and 10 is more than enough.  This would be a really appropriate time for me to give a real review myself, but I think I'll excuse myself out of a conflict of interest.