Los Angeles Times

Column: How John Proctor and #MeToo helped cure my 'work in progress' theater phobia

LOS ANGELES - Some people get anxious when they fly. I get tense when I go to a play. Particularly if the space is small and intimate and there is no intermission.

I fret about tech disasters and dropped lines, bad casting and flawed sets as if I were the playwright's mother or some make-or-break investor. Mostly, I worry that it will be terrible and that I will be trapped. Theater is an active, communal experience; what if I, as an audience member, can't hold up my end because despite what the reviewers said, I just really hate this play? It's not like I can hit the remote or get up and leave. I can't even slump in my seat and commune in horrified hilarity with my friends. The people who are making it are

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