Bill Gale | former ATCA Chair and Providence critic, dies at 87

Bill Gale | former ATCA Chair and Providence critic, dies at 87

Bill Gale, the longtime critic for the Providence Journal, gave a lot to the American Theatre Critics Association during his decades of active involvement, including three years as chair of the executive committee (1984-87). Friends recalled that he was somewhat nervous about being the first non-founding member to lead the organization. He also organized the 1984 national conference that brought ATCA members to see theater in his home base in Providence, R.I., as well as in New Haven and Cambridge. (See the listing of all past ATCA conferences here.)

His family reports that he passed away Nov. 26, 2024, after a short illness, at age 87.

Somewhere along the way, he gave up a treasured leather cowboy hat that he often wore. It became ATCA’s version of Broadway’s Legacy Robe. Back in the days when ATCA held conferences in different cities around the country, each conference chair passed it on to the next after adding some kind of trinket that represented the city or festival where ATCA had gathered. Over the years, it was topped by a beer bottle from Denver, a scroll from Philadelphia, dice from Las Vegas, numerous patches and a clown nose from Sarasota.

Bill wrote for the Providence Journal for more than 35 years, most of them as theater and dance critic. To prepare for his role as a dance critic, he took ballet lessons in his 40s to better understand the art form. After his retirement, he joined his son, Jeffrey, in running a theater website and he ended his career critiquing plays for The Public’s Radio in Providence. He served in the U.S. Air Force and worked for a time as an Air Traffic Controller.

Bill took his job seriously, but he also enjoyed his life. At ATCA gatherings, he was often joined by his wife, Peggy, who said in an email that ATCA “was a very important part of Bill’s life.”

Jonathan Abarbanel recalls when he was first elected to the executive committee in 1985, Bill was ATCA chair.

“I attended my first ExCom meeting at the Algonquin Hotel in NYC, at which a number of ATCA co-founders looked down their rather long noses at me with suspicion,” Jonathan remembers. “It’s not that I was all that much younger than some of them, but I was a sweater-and-jeans guy from an underground weekly paper, and not on staff at a major daily. But not Bill. He was outgoing, friendly and warm as he was every time I ever met him over the years. And he ran the meeting with efficiency and fair-handedness. I thought that Bill was ATCA.”

Retired Orlando Sentinel critic Elizabeth Maupin said he had “one of the most welcome faces to see at every ATCA conference. He was so friendly and so funny in that dry Bill-Gale way. He and Peggy always made going to conferences fun.”

In addition to Peggy and Jeffrey, he is also survived by his daughter, Susan Gale, and her partner Lisa Koulibaly, and two step-grandchildren.

Donations may be made to The Public’s Radio online or by mail at 1 Union Station, Providence, R.I., 02903.

– Submitted by Jay Handelman, with links and light edits by Martha Wade Steketee