How a young critic on HowlRound wrote “Whose America? … Whose theater?,” a review/commentary on California Shakespeare Theatre — and great is the noise and commentary thereupon, touching on many issues of lively interest. It’s a good read. Lily Janiak * Lily Janiak’s review/commentary with a zesty following string...
In the Winter 2013 Nieman Reports, in a collection of essays titled “Critical Condition,” John Lahr (former New Yorker drama critic) lambastes American theater critics in general and a couple of well-known ones in particular (but not by name). Under the heading “The Illumination Business,” he says, in part: “The reviewer...
Anthony Chase surveys the history (click here) of the great divide and, along with just about every other authority (AP style, for one), comes down firmly for the American form, “theater.” You don’t spell it “programme,” do you? Or “shoppe”? (NOTE: The ATCA site’s style is “theater”...
There’s been a spate of recent comments on criticism as chastisement and/or advertising (mainly of books, but we see the connections). For links to pieces by Richard Brody (newyorker.com), Jacob Silverman (slate.com), David Streitfield (nytimes.com), J. Robert Lennon (slate.com) and Dwight Garner (nytimes.com), click below. Here’s a teaser from Brody’s “How to Be a Critic”: It’s...
Thanks to Wendy Rosenfield, the new ATCA website has a steady stream of Twitter links to commentary on criticism (@Theatre_Critics, orange boxes on the home page) and also links to ATCA member reviews and stories (@ATCA_Member, just below them). You should follow both, or just check...
Maybe you missed the reference in the (excellent!) rush of ATCA tweets (those orange boxes up top on the left), so here it is again: the controversial Johann Hari defends criticism, most recently in Spin. ...
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...
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...
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”...
New York Times critic Charles Isherwood published a column on Oct. 7 saying, in effect that he didn’t want to be in a position to review anymore works by playwright Adam Rapp. “Adam Rapp won’t have me to kick around anymore,” Isherwood began. “Oops. I think...