Statistics and perspectives on the decline in newspaper coverage of the arts
The Columbia Journalism Review has published a thought provoking piece...
Criticism in Controversy
Better Living through Criticism
“Everyone in this world has someone else whom he can look down on,...
Criticism is free speech
“In reference to the recent Wooster Group/Harold Pinter situation in...
McNulty on why we do what we (should) do
Sometimes we post essays about criticism in the right-hand column. But...
Bitter Lemons raises basic issues, and hackles, too
The website Bitter Lemons now allows theaters to pay to be reviewed. Y...
Couple of Critical Controversies
Sarasota’s Asolo Rep was slapped down by Brian Friel for making sign...
Controversies: text changes and play to movie.
Sarasota’s Asolo Rep was slapped down by Brian Friel for making sign...
Michael Feingold: ‘Critic and Worker’
It’s a paradigm: Michael Feingold, one of the very finest American ...
Regional theater awards
One of the best established of regional theater awards is undergoing s...
To tweet or not to tweet – that is the critical question
You’re leaving a performance you are to review. Your deadline is two...
Critical kerfuffle greets Lily Janiak
How a young critic on HowlRound wrote “Whose America? … Whose thea...
Lahr vs. McNulty
In the Winter 2013 Nieman Reports, in a collection of essays titled&nb...
Practical criticism: “theater” or “theatre”?
Anthony Chase surveys the history (click here) of the great divide a...
How (Not?) to Be a Critic
There’s been a spate of recent comments on criticism as chastisement...
Stream of commentary on criticism: check in here to keep up!
Thanks to Wendy Rosenfield, the new ATCA website has a steady str...
Another lament over the erosion of criticism
Maybe you missed the reference in the (excellent!) rush of ATCA tweets...
ATCA responds to S.F. Bay Area critics’ concerns
Jay Handelman, excom chair, has written member John McMullen about t...
Meanwhile, debate elsewhere about theater reviews
We’ll have ATCA’s response to the SF Bay Area critics’ concern s...
S.F. Bay-area theaters target online critics
Press representatives for nine prominent San Francisco Bay-area theate...
Dueling opinions from critics over when to say ‘enough’ – UPDATE
New York Times critic Charles Isherwood published a column on Oct. 7 s...
‘Ohio critic’s tough words elicit rough reaction’
Thus the headline on John Moore’s 2006 Denver Post story on the du...
Critic’s Notebook: My apprenticeship in the regional theater
”Regional theater wasn’t a big turn-on for me when I was a theater...
Commentary: new position papers
In the drop-down Commentary menu (above), a new category, Position Pap...
‘The Rise of the Amateur’
Alison Croggon gave this talk on April 11 at the Judith Wright Ce...
A Critic’s Place, Thumb and All
“Is there a future for criticism?” asked A.O. Scott in t...
Ongoing critical scuffle over ‘Spider Man’
The latest take on the ongoing war of attrition is surveyed in th...
‘Defy the Elite!’
Thus the headline to A.O. Scott’s Jan. 16 NYT column on the death/ch...
Critical scuffle over ‘Spider Man’
Jan. 18 — Leonard Jacobs has a juicy take on the “Spider Man” ...
David Hare: mere fact, mere fiction
In The Guardian, 17 April 2010, the playwright replied to his critics ...
‘Will criticism survive? Does anyone care?’
Nov. 5 — ATCA member and former membership chair Julie York Coppens...
New ‘Criticism in Controversy’ page
Critics and criticism keep making news, so after appearing here on the...
Critic taken off beat, legal fur flies
“Right to an opinion – or wrong?” is Michael Phillips’ Aug. ...
Old Story: Pulitzer Board Rejects Drama Jury’s Choices
For the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, the 17-member Pulitzer board rej...
Theresa Rebeck has some things to say about critics
The ATCA website is for news about theater critics and Theresa Rebeck...
Another critic axed
Critic David Rooney Variety, the so-called show biz bible, has jettiso...
Tonys give critics back the vote; ATCA had its say
March, 2010 — The critics (in this case, the 20-some members of the ...
Drama Queen debates membership criteria
Springboarding off the ATCA/O’Neill panel on New Media for Critics i...
ATCA membership — elite, or rank and file?
The debate about the criteria for ATCA membersip that flared (by desig...
It ain’t over
The laundry is done; now the notebook gets unpacked. I filled the bett...
Pulitzers Reject Drama Jury Choices
Following are some thoughts on the controversy, mainly from our New Pl...
Drama Pulitzer, 5
In the dustup over the Pulitzer Committee’s decision to bypass the r...
Drama Pulitzer, 4
Some are wondering if Charles McNulty and other Pulitzer drama panelis...
Drama Pulitzer, 3
Mr. McNulty seems to have assessed the situation all too accurately. I...
Drama Pulitzer, 2
Actually, the foolish choices for Pulitzer for Drama go back further a...
Drama Pulitzer, 1
It was brave, decent and honest of McNulty to go public. Trouble is ...