November 5. Day 309. Room for improvement

I've watched a lot of home improvement shows and through them I've learned two clear messages:
1. Throw cushions are essential and
2. Renovations always take a lot longer and are a lot more complicated than initially planned for.
The throw cushions I can deal with. The renovations, not so much. So I feel really, really sorry for Villanova Players.  Their home at Morningside TAFE was closed for a short time while work on the campus was carried out. By the time they move back in next year, they will have been gone for three years. In the interim they have been performing at the Yeronga State High School auditorium. It means the sets have to be moved in and out after each show to let the school go about its business in school hours. In addition the fees paid to the school over the period, have covered the cost of air conditioning the auditorium. It will be nice and cool just as they are counting down to move out. But in the best theatrical tradition, the show must go on. This is not a theatre group that takes the easy way out. I mean, why perform the Shakespearean comedy Much Ado about Nothing as The Bard originally intended when you can re-image it and set it in the wild west? It's risky but the risks paid off. Performing the work in a combination of Mexican accents and Texan drawl made absolute sense - at least to me. But not everyone was convinced and one patron was quite prepared to tell the director why she got it wrong. The accents made it too hard to follow, she said. That wasn't my experience. But let's assume for a minute she was right. What exactly would she hope to achieve by confronting the director? It's not as though it would be possible to switch accents mid run even if you wanted to. So in my mind it falls into the category of "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". Or at least take the approach I employ with marking, something I call a positivity sandwich. Start and end your feedback with a positive and sandwich the "room for improvement" bit in the middle. You can learn from your mistakes without being beaten around the head with them... Well that's my opinion. Feel free to correct me. But please soften the blow with throw cushions.
You can hear our review of Much Ado About Nothing here