Author: ATCA

Better Living through Criticism

“Everyone in this world has someone else whom he can look down on,” wrote George Orwell in 1946, “and I must say, from experience of both trades, that the book reviewer is better off than the film critic, who cannot even do his work at home.” Now, of...

ATCA names six finalists for $40,000 Steinberg/ATCA Awards

ATCA has selected six finalists for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, recognizing playwrights for the best scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2015. The top award of $25,000 and two citations of $7,500 each, plus commemorative plaques,...

Minutes of March ExCom Conference Call on March 1, 2016

download Word .doc file Prepared by Barbara Bannon, ATCA Secretary Bill Hirschman called the meeting to order at 1:35 p.m. EST.  The following Ex-Com members were present: Charles Giuliano, Lou Harry, Brad Hathaway, Bill Hirschman, Wendy Rosenfield, Ed Rubin, and Martha Steketee. Barbara Bannon, ATCA secretary; Jay...

Call for submissions for 2016 Francesca Primus Prize

Deadline April 30. ATCA invites submissions for the 2016 Francesca Primus Prize, an annual $10,000 award honoring outstanding contributions to the American theater by an emerging female playwright (one who has not achieved national prominence). The prize is made possible through the generosity of the Francesca Ronnie...

Criticism is free speech

“In reference to the recent Wooster Group/Harold Pinter situation in Los Angeles and scattered reports of troubling analogs around the country, the American Theatre Critics Association strongly reaffirms our bedrock tenet that arts criticism is journalism,” stated Wm. F. Hirschman, chair, ATCA executive committee. Harold Pinter (1930-2008): What...

Registration now open for Philadelphia conference, April 6-10

(Note ATCA’s Daumier critic as the clapper of the Liberty Bell — painful, perhaps, but a pretty good metaphor for criticism!) It took a while to get the bells and whistles aligned (tuned?), but you can now get aboard the Philly express. Why wait? Click here! to see...

Playwright Sharyn Rothstein wins 2015 Primus Prize

Sharyn Rothstein has won the 2015 Francesca Primus Prize for an emerging woman playwright for her By the Water, which premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage II in Nov., 2014. ATCA adjudicates the award. Primus committee chair Barbara Bannon of Salt Lake City explained that the 2015 announcement came late...

Minutes of ATCA ExCom Conference Call January 7, 2016

download Word doc file Prepared by Barbara Bannon, ATCA Secretary Bill Hirschman called the meeting to order at 1:35 p.m. EST.  The following Ex-Com members were present: Jonathan Abarbanel, Charles Giuliano, Lou Harry, Brad Hathaway, Bill Hirschman, Wendy Rosenfield, Ed Rubin, and Martha Steketee. Barbara Bannon, ATCA...

ATCA Names Six Finalists for the 2015 Francesca Primus Prize

November 30, 2015 — The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) has announced the six finalists for the 2015 Francesca Primus Prize. Jointly sponsored by ATCA and the Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, the Primus Prize of $10,000 is given annually to an emerging woman playwright. The six...

Bebe Neuwirth, presenting Ann Reinking to the Theater Hall of Fame, Nov. 18, 2019

Thank you, Theater Hall of Fame, for making the brilliant decision to induct Ms. Ann Reinking. It is my great honor and joy to say a few words about my dear and treasured friend — one of the most deeply intelligent, kind, and sensitive people...