The End of 2006 (Man What a Year!)

As with any good blog, we at Rorschach know that you all expect some sort of year end report. I am a very busy man these days and therefore I don't have time to come up with another series of lies and half truths. Instead I will just throw a lot of press quotes and honors at you and see if anything sticks. If it does stick, I recommend club soda and a rag. Do not rub the stain but instead brush against the grain of the fabric. This also work for cocktail sauce and gravy. If you happen to bleed on something, use your own spit to get the stain out. Other people's spit will not get your blood out, so be sure to only use your own spit. Now on to the accolades:

The Trey Graham and Bob Mondello do a yearly review of everything theater in the last issue of the City Paper. With the exception of Rorschach's second season we have avoided their ire on a fairly consistent basis. I don't think they have ever lavished the kind of love they have this year.

. . .maybe we should just be glad we’ve got the increasingly rangy and invariably stylish Rorschach Theatre staging shoestring productions of everything from hallucinatory modern-day fairytales to Tony Kushner satires to 17th-century Japanese classics—in a converted sanctuary, no less.

Thank you gentlemen and if you want to read the whole year end review from the City Paper go here.

I feel like we made a new friend in the DCist this year and a critic who seems to on the whole get what we are trying to do in Missy Frederick. As part of Missy's December Theater Preview she listed some of her Christmas wishes and at part of them went out to Rorschach:

1. . . . for small but innovative companies like Rorschach to get Helen Hayes nods this year.

Thank you Missy and I hope we live up to your expectations in the New Year.

Over at Potomac Stages, where Brad Hathaway sees more theater than just about anyone, a group of theater goers gave us our second Usher's Favorite show pick. You may all remember that The Beard of Avon was picked as one of two favorite shows back in November of 2005 along with The Shakespeare Theatre's Comedy of Errors. Well we were honored once again this year to share the Usher's Favorite show with Olney's The Elephant Man for A Bright Room Called Day back in May.

Thank you too everyone who voted for our shows and for the future it would nice not to have to share the honor with little theaters like Olney and The Shakespeare Theatre.

And finally you may all remember back in the fall WUSA Channel 9 was running a popularity contest for the Best Theater in Washington. (A contest that only proves its pointlessness because if you look at the Editor's Pick for Best Theater in DC, they picked The Uptown.) Well as you may also remember we did not win. But we ran a damn good race and I expect you all to be in fighting form when the Post runs the same dog and pony show this summer. What it did do however was give people a chance leave some wonderful comments about Rorschach on WUSA's web site. I have picked a few to share:

"Originality in productions. You never see the same set or sit in the same way from production to production. One doesn't always understand all of their plays, but they are thoughtful and provocative." by Pam Lipscomb

"A willingness to take risks. A collaborative environment. People whose main goal is to tell a story, not just to "make money"-- and they don't take for granted a single penny spent or earned in the process. Creativity and inventiveness that humbles the larger, bigger-budget theatre companies in the area. They genuinely care about the art they are making and the people they are making it with." by Valerie Fenton

"Unique! A great night of entertainment! Rorshach productions leave you thinking and considering the art that you just saw. We attend Rorschach productions as a group of 3 - 6 people and we always leave the theatre with a lively discussion of the show that lasts until we pull into our suburban driveways!" by Tammy Flanagan

"Their choice of radical material from a wide range of periods, styles and geographical areas (e.g., a play adapted from an ancient Chinese puppet show); their choice of plays that often have relevance for the current geo-political situation, without being didactic; and--most important--the visceral acting style and physically expressive staging that they consistently promote in their productions." by Ben Cross

Thank you for coming through everyone in 2006. And remember we are just weeks away from the Opening of our first show of 2007, Rough Magic. Here is to more New Years with Rorschach! Have a safe and happy weekend.