an Introduction, by Bobo

STAGE THRUST
BY BOBO THE THEATER HO (aka Michael Bowen, theater critic for The Pacific Northwest Inlander)

Welcome to a new forum for Spokane theater news, opinion and gossip.

Hi, my name's Michael, and I'm a theater ho. (There, just like an AA meeting, I said it publicly for the first time.)

Theater hos will do anything to see the next show. Theater hos live for the next chance to talk with other actors. Because theater hos know how to dish. I mean, we live for when the lights go down -- but when they come back up, we know how to face the bright light of day and tell it like we mean it.

Casual theater fans get all googly-eyed over all those lovely costumes, and ask questions like, "How DO you memorize all those lines? -- but in my experience, you get a bunch of theater people together with beer and wine and -- honey, they wouldn't even be in that show and my God, am I glad I didn’t audition for that piece of merde ... They get all hypercritical, as if to demonstrate just how superior their own critical standards are.

So, all you Spokane theater people -- directors, actors, techies -- let's talk online. We just might be surprised by what we find out.
Part of my motivation (what’s my motivation in this scene?) for writing this blog is to elicit comments from members of the Spokane theater community on all kinds of topics, so we can create better shows and get more butts in more theatrical seats. And so I can write better reviews.

In my next post, a bit about how this blog might develop, with a special note about opening night at ARt -- Saturday, Aug. 27 ...