The Actor's Theatrical Review Sheet
Your Own Grassroots Marketing and Advertising
One of the most fundamental, and yet maddening, realities of working in the theatre is after closing night, all that’s left are your memories, the program, some press pictures and the reviews. It’s great to be able to add the role of Hamlet or Ophelia to your resume, but don’t you wish there was a way to parlay that into something more? Well you can because the way to do it is easy and the pieces are right in front of you.
What is a Review Sheet?
Simply put, a review sheet is a collection of reviews and photos from your latest show, or shows, used to create a broadsheet or flyer. Now before you get your hackles up, please understand that you, like many actors, probably don’t read the reviews of your show until after closing night…if at all. You don’t put much stock in what a theatre critic might say about your work and though that’s smart and mature it’s not the point. Frankly, what you think or feel about those reviews doesn’t matter.
The point is that other people will read them and form opinions based on them. You do the same thing when reading the movie reviews to decide which picture to go see at the cinema. Two thumbs up, or two thumbs down, can have a big influence on whether or not you go to that film. Stop looking at these reviews through the lens of your ego, and begin to see them from the point of view of a marketing and/or publicity director.
As long as the critic liked some aspect of the show, be it the cast, the performances in general, or the interpretation of the play, you have material that you can quote. Of course, if they mention you specifically in glowing terms, you’ve hit a little nugget of advertising gold! So you pull a quote from one review that praised the show overall, but didn’t mention you, and place it next to a blurb that singled you out for praise but gave the show a so-so rating. Pick and choose the best stuff…pick and choose.
Now on some nice paper, copy and paste those quotes along with photos of you from the play, the logo of the show, the icon of the theatre, etc. They’re actually fun to do, once you get the hang of it.
Look What I’ve Been Up To!
So how do you use this review sheet once you’ve created it? Here’s how:
- If you get the sheet created before the show closes, you can send it out, along with an invitation to the play, to any industry people. Those reviews might peak their interest enough that they might come and see the show.
- After the show closes you can send out a mailing to all the people in your database. Think of it as sort of a, “This is what I’ve been doing!” mailer.
- If you start creating one for every show, eventually you’ll have many to choose from and can use them, along with your picture/resume, when soliciting an agent, director or casting director.
- Finally, when you have a selection of them to choose from, you can target the review sheets for specific projects. So you’d send the Alabama Shakespeare Festival the review sheets that highlight your classical theatre work.
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