Maren's Many Moments

I have now spent almost two full days being in the company of theatre critics who have done this for decades, along with newbies like myself.  Some people got their start when a news desk said "we need you to write an entertainment feature, go!"  Some of us, like me, sought out opportunities to be a part of the community. I love theatre.  I have since I was a kid.  And while I am a decent singer, I never really translated well to on stage performance.  Nerves got the best of me.  My voice doesn't match my appearance.  A million other reasons.  So I did back stage stuff, chorus stuff, but really, what it came down to was simply that I enjoy more than anything being in the theatre.  Watching the story unfold.  Watching the actors play their parts.  Connecting and learning and being with others like me and not like me.  Today I saw a quote on the wall at the San Francisco Playhouse that said it perfectly: Making the community a better place, one day at a time. What is

I have ventured into San Francisco to participate in the conference for the American Theatre Critics Association #ATCA.   This is my first conference as a new member.  I have also been spending a lot of time hearing about the fact that I graduated from high school 20 years ago.  This causes me to reflect on my senior trip, to New York City, as a young Utahn who really knew very little about the world and even less about art and theatre, though I had well worn CDs and CD jackets of lyrics and felt myself to be an expert of epic proportions.  Of course, now I am older and wiser and see theatre all over, have been to many places all over the country, lived in two of the best theatre meccas in the United States, and can calmly and eloquently give my expert opinion. Ha! If you believed that last part, you have no clue who I really am.  Every time I come to a new place, I feel like that niave yet excited 18 year old who felt like a rebel stepping into a bar to find out the score between th