A review by erinkellyreads
Theatre Kids by John DeVore

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

 

er Theatre student and teacher, I can confirm that the saying is true. I've found that I can usually spot the person in every room who either likes Theatre or participated in it to some degree. Just the other day in a summer orientation a student asked me if I used to do any Theatre because she did, and I proudly proclaimed that we had found "our people". 

Netgalley and Brilliance Audio Publishing approved me to check out an advanced listener copy of John Devore's memoir "Theatre Kids: A True Tale of Off-Off Broadway", and I was instantly intrigued by the title. A brief synopsis of the book says: 

In 2004, in a small, windowless theater in then-desolate Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a coterie of desperate and dedicated theater artists staged an experimental, four-hour, entirely unauthorized adaptation of William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying. Its centerpiece was an enormous wooden coffin that dominated the space, leaving room for fewer audience members than actors. It ran for only eight performances, fewer than one hundred people saw it, and it changed John DeVore’s life.Out of these inauspicious circumstances, Theatre Kids weaves a hilarious and unforgettable account of outsize ambition, artistic ingenuity, dashed hopes, and the magic of theatre in fin-de-siècle New York City. DeVore tells the story of how he—recently arrived from Texas, toiling in the salt mines of Maxim magazine, and trying unsuccessfully to quit drugs and alcohol—fell in with the rambunctious and permanently broke outcasts and misfits who comprised the Off-Off Broadway theatre scene. Maintaining only a tenuous hold on his sanity and sobriety, DeVore was cast in In a Strange Room, whose sweetly monomaniacal director—undaunted by his failure to secure rights from the Faulkner estate—spent $10,000 of his own money in pursuit of a messy, ambitious theatrical spectacle that was doomed to commercial and critical failure, but ultimately led to a kind of success: a sweaty, personal, ephemeral masterpiece.At once a heartfelt love letter to the stage and a bemused portrait of life in the waning days of American empire, Theatre Kids is a buoyant, uproarious, and ultimately moving story that will resonate with anyone who has ever created something beautiful without regard for riches or fame.

As a fellow Texas Theatre Kid, I felt like this was the book for me. The novel is read by Brian Holden who does a great job of expressing the sarcastic, sometimes bitter and biting, yet still hopelessly vulnerable voice of John. The first third of the book focuses on his upbringing and introduction to Theatre, and that was my favorite part of the novel. There were so many nods and details to things that Theatre Kids enjoy and go through like screaming musical songs at a Denny's at midnight, the excitement and drama of the cast party, the first time that you forget your line onstage, goofs and mishaps, and the silly pretention of being a "thespian". The middle section focuses on John attending college and losing his way in the world. He suddenly wasn't a big fish in a small pond, and that is something I have seen many of my students struggle with post-graduation. He stopped trying and fell into partying with drugs and alcohol - only graduating because his professors wanted him to get on with it. He learns that he actually enjoys writing and playwriting in particular, but college is over and he must go off. He ends up working as a writer at Comedy Central, but things are still not well. He's having an affair with a coworker, and then his father passes away. He leaves Comedy Central for Maxim, but he is extremely unhappy to the point of ideation. He reaches out to a former Theatre friend who tells him about his new project - an off-off Broadway nonprofit production of Faulkner (without having the rights to Faulkner...). John takes the opportunity to audition, and this messy art piece that would never get off the ground to the bigger theaters in NYC becomes a renaissance for John. The enduring nature of Theatre brings him back to life - I've always said we make art for art's sake, not just for money. 

I read some other reviews of the book as I was listening, and the consensus seemed to have critiques on the point of the book. The synopsis covers the final production, but, again, we don't see that until the last third of the book. I saw one reviewer ask what made John's story so special that it would warrant getting to have a memoir. I thought this was a little harsh, but I think I understand the takeaway. Is this book about the uplifting nature of Theatre and making art? Is this book about a subsect of people called Theatre Kids and the experiences they (we) have? Is this book about an off-off Broadway production of a Faulkner work post-9/11? It is all of these things, and I think that may be throwing people off. Perhaps a little more streamlining with less side quests between John's personal life and explaining what things mean. This book is for us Theatre Kids, and if someone doesn't catch something, let them pick up on it through context. 

Overall, I think this was a fun reflection of something I've always loved. The Theatre is my home. I have seen its transformative powers on literally hundreds if not thousands of people across my lifetime, and I'm only 33. If you're a Theatre Kid, or if you love a Theatre kid, check out this audiobook as it is out TODAY, 6/18, where books are sold.