Risk’s rewards

READING “Shining Successes, All-Wet Attempts” [Dec. 18] made me reflect on what we are trying to do here in the L.A. theater community.

We are trying to create art that engages, entertains, inspires and illuminates. I was very pleased and humbled to be selected by your paper for success for a show I directed. I was also struck by what seemed a very unnecessary, hurtful and potentially damaging coda.

In the theater, we take risks, or at least we should. The nature of risk is such that sometimes we fail. For The Times’ reviewers and writers to pick out four productions, and condemn them in such a mean-spirited way was unkind. They were shows that, in your opinion, didn’t work. They were also risks taken by those companies. I am not suggesting that the shows were better or worse than you indicated, I am saying you shouldn’t have mentioned them at all. Your paper is the most influential opinion-maker in town; you need to live up to that awesome responsibility. Your comments may have caused the only major midsized theater in town to rethink doing new work. We all love the theater. We all want to see great theater. We all need to be careful because it’s a delicate flower.

DARIN ANTHONY

Los Angeles