History

The American Theatre Critics Association was founded in 1974 by a group of leading theater critics from around the country who for several years had been gathering at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Conn. Following the growth of professional regional theater, they identified the need for a national organization with a larger scope than the geographically challenged (one might even say provincial) New York Drama Critics Circle. 

The ATCA membership voted to expand the association name in January 2024 to the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association to embrace the changing world of theater journalism.

ATCA’s connection to the O’Neill is made tangible in the annual National Critics Institute, which many ATCA members have attended as fellows and mentors and which ATCA continues to support financially. Many ATCA members continue to visit the O’Neill as individuals and in ATCA convenings that have been held on the grounds over the years.

The best account of ATCA’s early years and indeed of the wisdom and experience of a passing era in theater criticism is Under the Copper Beech: Conversations with American Theater Critics, edited by Jeffrey Eric Jenkins (Foundation ATCA, 2004, 221 pages). This collection of informal interviews with many of ATCA’s founders—Lawrence DeVine, Otis L. Guernsey Jr., Henry Hewes, Clara Hieronymus, Ann Holmes, Norman Nadel, Elliot Norton, Julius Novick, Ernest Schier, and Dan Sullivan—belongs in every critic’s library.

Under the Copper Beech originally retailed at $10 for ATCA members and $15 for nonmembers, proceeds designated to benefit the educational programs of Foundation ATCA. The publication is now out-of-print, but those with interest in access to an archival copy or to explore the contents of the volume, please feel free to contact:

Martha Wade Steketee
President, Foundation ATCA
msteketee@gmail.com