ATCA heads to West Virginia in 2013

Chicago, June 14 — The American Theatre Critics Association voted today to hold its 2013 conference at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

The festival will be offering two commissioned productions and several other new works and staged readings, to be announced later in the year. Festival leaders are working with ATCA to secure discounted hotel rooms and transportation from Washington Dulles International Airport, the closest, to help attending members.

The festival, which will stage its 100th production next season, operates for a month in July in theater spaces at Shepherd University. It is an area filled with natural beauty near many historic sites, including Harper’s Ferry and Antietnam Battlefield. Details will follow in the months ahead.

PLAYWRIGHT TAMMY RYAN WINS $10,000 FRANCESCA PRIMUS PRIZE FOR 2012; DOMINIQUE MORRISEAU ALSO HONORED

Chicago, June 14, 2012 — The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) announced at its annual conference today that playwright Tammy Ryan has Playwright Tammy Ryan won the 2012 Francesca Primus Prize for her play Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods. She receives $10,000, a wall plaque and a chance to be celebrated at an upcoming ATCA conference.

Jointly sponsored by ATCA and the Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, the Primus Prize is given annually to an emerging woman theater artist. Playwrights, artistic directors, and directors are eligible to apply.

Click to read more ...

Chicago schedule, Day 3

June 15, Friday
     - 9:30AM, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Skyline Room (6th floor), continental breakfast.
     - 10:15AM-11AM, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, welcome from artistic director Barbara Gaines and executive director Criss Henderson; presentation of Osborne and Primus awards to playwrights Darren Canady and Caridad Svich.
     - 11AM-Noon, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Perspectives in Criticism: Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout discusses The Power of Enthusiasm.
     - 1:45PM-3:15PM, “Diversity at the Top,” panel discussion, Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont, with artistic directors Chay Yew (Victory Gardens), Bonnie Metzgar (About Face) and Lili-Anne Brown (Bailiwick Chicago).
     - 3:30PM-5:00PM, “The Permanent Avant-Garde,” panel discussion, Theater Wit, with representatives of the Curious Theatre Branch, the Neo-Futurists and Theater Oobleck.
     - 5PM-7PM, dinner on your own at one of the many casual and modestly-priced Belmont Avenue restaurants, with Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, deep-dish pizza and American cuisines among the options … and a Vienna Pure Beef hot dog stand!
     - 7:30PM, selection of Off-Loop shows by three different theatre companies in the Theater Wit performance spaces.
     - 10PM-?, late-night options for comedy, magic and clubs.

Chicago schedule, day 2 (post-'Iceman')

Day 1 featured a reception with the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs (this is not your average city government) and an Iceman Cometh marathon, just the right way to test our mettle. Here’s Day 2:

June 14, Thursday
     * Arrivals contune at conference hotels.
     * Continental breakfast and General Membership Meeting, 9AM-Noon, Tribune Tower, 435 N. Michigan Avenue, 20th Floor.
     * 1:30PM My Kind of Town (world premiere), TimeLine Theatre Co., 615 W. Wellington.
     * 5PM, Black Ensemble Cultural Center, 4450 N. Clark Street, dinner.
     * 7:30PM, The Marvin Gaye Story: Don’t Talk About My Father Because God Is My Friend, Black Ensemble Cultural Center.
     * 7:30PM, Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me taping, Chase Auditorium, 10 S. Dearborn Street.

Welcome to Chicago, bright and brawny!

That’s what Chicago felt like Tuesday, with or without the big shoulders, with five days of plays and old friends ahead at the 2012 ATCA annual conference.

Laura Hayes’ logo for ATCA Chicago: ATCA’s satiric image of a self-satisified critic by Daumier takes over the famous spitting Crown Fountain in Millennium Park.SCHEDULE, Day 1, Wednesday, June 13
     * Executive Committee meets, 10AM-3PM, Club Quarters Hotel.
     * Arrivals, members and guests at Conference hotels; free time.
     * Some leisure options: 11AM-1:30PM, open rehearsal of Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park (free); 12:15PM-1PM, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert (chamber music), Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. (free).
     * 5PM-6:20PM, Opening Reception, Harris Theater Roof Garden, 205 E. Randolph Street, Millennium Park. BE PROMPT!  Hosted by Michelle T. Boone, Commissioner, City of Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs and Special Events; we must leave at 6:20PM for the Goodman Theatre.
     * 7PM, The Iceman Cometh, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn Street (and yes, it gets out just before midnight!) … some of the faint of heart have chosen other options.

Final, updated schedule for ATCA Chicago 2012

Read the final, completed schedule below or click here to view a pdf printable version.

Click to read more ...

More on Chicago (June 13-17); still time to register

“NATO has left the building and Chicago is still intact.” So says Jonathan Abarbanel, chair of ATCA’s Chicago conference, June 13-17. Recent schedule additions include a Soul Food dinner courtesy of brand-new $19 million Black Ensemble Cultural Center, followed by the Ensemble’s latest musical biography, “The Marvin Gaye Story.” Cultural Commissioner Michelle T. Boone hosts an opening reception in the roof garden of the Harris Theater at Millennium Park, catered by Phil Stefani & Associates, one of Chicago’s celebrated restaurateurs. And at the Water Tower Pumping Station, we’ll see Lookingglass Theatre Company in the premiere of “Eastland,” about the worst maritime disaster in Great Lakes history.

For those not yet registered, there’s still time: info here. Registered or not, read on …

Click to read more ...

Foundation ATCA president and ' Best Plays' editor Jenkins takes on chair at U. of Illinois

Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, editor of Best Plays, Jeffrey Eric Jenkinsformer ATCA chair, president of Foundation ATCA and chair of our international committee, is the new Head of the Department of Theatre at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Click to read more ...

ATCA responds to S.F. Bay Area critics' concerns

Jay Handelman, excom chair, has written member John McMullen about the recent request from eight S.F. Bay Area theaters for page view stats for online reviewers (scroll down two items for the original letter). Handelman points out that no theater owes any critic a free ticket, but that all theaters, like ATCA, share the mission “to ensure that the debate and conversation about theater continues to grow through as many critical voices as possible to stimulate readers, theaters and audiences.” For the full letter:

Click to read more ...

Meanwhile, debate elsewhere about theater reviews

We’ll have ATCA’s response to the SF Bay Area critics’ concern shortly, but in the meantime, if you need something to distract you from your daily rounds, there are these two discussions going on “Howl Round: A Journal of the Theater Commons”: “What do we actually want from a theater review” and “The Gamble of Being Reviewed.”

S.F. Bay-area theaters target online critics

Press representatives for nine prominent San Francisco Bay-area theaters have just asked what they call “citizen journalists” (online theater critics and/or bloggers) to supply statistics on web traffic, “to demonstrate to our employers that the press passes we issue deliver a meaningful return on investment” – i.e., to help decide who should receive free reviewers’ tickets. The communication urges: “Please don’t fret about this! The report you send will not automatically qualify or disqualify you for attendance at any theater. Each of our companies retains the right to set its own policies with regard to press passes … .”

The San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle is studying a possible response. The ATCA executive committee will have its own response very shortly. Note ATCA’s own criteria for membership, which are relevant to this debate. The letter from the press reps follows …

Click to read more ...

Chicago Conference adds another star, Simon Callow

Distinguished actor Simon Callow, CBE, will meet with ATCA members and guests and answer Simon Callow questions in “A Conversation with Simon Callow” on Saturday, June 16. Callow is best-known to American audiences for his film work (Amadeus, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love) and his occasional TV appearances on Doctor Who. But in England he’s known as a stage actor, director and sometimes singer who has a one-man show, Being Shakespeare, and who’s directed opera and written extensively on theatre and literary history. He will be in Chicago to perform as Beethoven in two concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. (Scroll down for Conference details.)