On Play Reviews

To the Editors of the Crimson:

I wish to protest the review of the production of Happy Birthday, Wanda June which appeared in the March 17 edition of The Crimson. Obviously, it is not my place to question the reviewer's opinion of the show. What I do question is the ethics involved in the choice of the reviewer Miss Joseph reviewed the play after having auditioned for a part in it and subsequently being rejected. No matter how objective she may have attempted to be in her assessment of the show, she could not help but to enter the audience with some sort of negative bias. Further, there is no evidence of any attempt at objectivity in Miss Joseph's review. The factual inaccuracies, logical inconsistencies, and hypocritical conclusions (one wonders why she auditioned for the play if she felt it was better "to let the play gather dust") all indicate a vindictive article written out of pique.

Obviously there are problems with any production, and I make no claim to know how favorable a fair critique of my production would be. However, it seems that a review written by someone who tried to be in the show and failed cannot possibly be a fair critique. It was unethical and irresponsible of Miss Joseph to accept the assignment of reviewing Happy Birthday, Wanda June, and it was equally unethical and irresponsible of those editors who knew of this situation to allow the article to be printed. At this point, I can only hope that in the future the editors will take their journalistic responsibility to be objective and disinterested more seriously. James Orenstein `84   Director, Happy Birthday, Wanda June