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From the publisher...
April 2008
Outspoken, honest and forthright — these are words one might use to describe LEO's Sherry Deatrick. A freelance theatre reviewer affiliated with The Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO), the city's widely circulated alternative newspaper, Sherry never leaves her readers in doubt as to how she feels about a production, although they may marvel at her cleverness of expression. Whether she pans or praises, and whether her review leaves you smiling or screaming, it always leaves you with the sense of having read something worthwhile and beautifully crafted, as well as entertaining in its own right. To find out more about the woman who commands this gift, TheatreLouisville's A.S. Waterman and Niles Welch sat down with Sherry over lunch at the Bristol Cafe in Prospect. We learned some surprising things.
"In my 'real' life, I'm an attorney," Sherry tells us for the first surprise. Rather than practicing law, however, she's currently employed as a project manager at the accounting firm Tichenor & Associates. "I had my own practice in Richmond, Kentucky, for a couple of years, then I moved back here. I was general counsel for Workforce Development, then I worked for a health care company that did consulting work for Medicaid departments to investigate fraud and abuse," she explains. "But that's how I spend my days: auditing people who file for bankruptcy." She spends evenings writing cutting-edge theatre reviews. She began with At the Vanishing Point by Naomi Iizuka, part of the Humana Festival in 2004. LEO had needed a reviewer in a pinch, and Liz Kramer (LEO's arts editor at the time) recommended Sherry. Sherry accepted the challenge and found that it was a lot of fun. "Then I moved away, so I really didn't review regularly until '06, in May," she recalls. Coming from such a different background, she has worked hard at mastering the craft quickly. In 2007, she was one of a select group of 25 who were invited to participate in a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, which offered an intensive, 10-day workshop in theatre criticism. "We saw at least one play every day we were there. Sometimes two. It was pretty amazing," she tells us. She especially credits the workshop's main speaker, John Lahr, senior drama critic at The New Yorker. "One thing he impressed upon us was that theatre should take you somewhere," she says. "So if I don't get that — if I'm not taken somewhere — I feel cheated." The Fellowship encouraged reviewers to look for the moment when they sit forward in their chair. That's when the play engages the audience. However, Sherry admits, "Sometimes that just doesn't happen." And that's disappointing. The workshop also taught, perhaps surprisingly, that most people don't want to read about the story line of a play. Sherry says that too many reviewers get bogged down in the plot, when it's the theme of a play that's really important. Moreover, she recommends that reviewers narrow their focus, picking out a single aspect, such as the acting or even the set design, that really stands out. This is especially true when writing for limited space. LEO reviews are often limited to 300 words, including the introduction and byline.
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