ATCANY2025 | Annual Conference 2025

Early Bird $100 September 22, 2025 through October 26, 2025. Full Price $150 October 27, 2025 and after.

Members and Member Guests Only

The American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association 2025 annual conference celebrating theater and theater makers in New York City will be held November 7-9, 2025.

The conference planning committee (Scott Bennett, David John Chávez, Jay Handelman, Lou Harry, Bill Hirschman, Gerard Raymond , Martha Wade Steketee, and Maren Scriven Swensen) have been meeting since Spring 2025 assembling an exciting program. Details to be posted as they are finalized.

Stay tuned to this page and weekly ATCA newsletter for the latest developments in the evolving agenda.

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PRICE

• $100 Early Bird registration for full conference, available September 22, 2025 through October 26, 2025 [midnight Eastern] for all ATCA member types (Active, Associate, Affiliate, Alumni, and Emeritus)
• $150 Full Price registration for full conference, available October 27, 2025 [12:01 am Eastern] through end of conference for all ATCA member types (Active, Associate, Affiliate, Alumni, and Emeritus)

See below in area beneath the Agenda text for a link to purchase tickets of the available type (including limited free tickets to November 6 pre-conference book talk and November 9 session at the Museum of Broadway). ATCA members wishing to register for the conference will take the following steps.

• Make sure you’re logged in as and ATCA member
• Click the EVENTS dropdown menu at the far right of the page (visible only to members)
• Select CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
• Scroll to the bottom of the event page to view tickets visible only to members.
• Members may purchase guest tickets at the member rates using the same procedure. If purchasing more than one ticket, select the total number of tickets desired first, and provide name and email for each attendee ticket in a following screen.
• Registered conference attendees may also select the free RSVP ticket items for the book talk on November 6 and the Museum of Broadway conversation and tours on November 9. Access to free tickets is reserved for regular conference ticket holders only.

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CONFERENCE FORUM

The ATCANY2025 conference forum has been established for ATCA members who are registered for the conference. This is an area where attendees can discuss Ticket offers (as arranged through planning committee member Lou Harry), Ticket sharing arrangements such as available “plus ones”, Housing options suggested by attendees, and other topics of interest to conference attendees. Only registered ATCA members are granted access to the discussions. We are using the same forum programming that we use for the work of our ATCA Membership and New Play committees, so members of those committees will be familiar with the mechanics. Webmaster Steketee will create forum topics and all registered ATCA members can comment in any topic threads created. NOTE: adding registrants into the conference forum is a manual not automatic process so there may be some delay in accessing the resources there. Thank your for your patience as we try out this new conference option and service for our registrants.

• Once you’ve registered for the conference, make sure you’re logged in as an ATCA member 
• Follow THIS LINK to the ATCANY2025 conference forum
• Return to the forum for updates on tickets and housing discussions

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AGENDA
[Subject to change based on availability of invited guests.]

ATCANY2025 agenda one-page handout [final revised] [posted 11-5-25]
ATCANY2025 Presenter Bios and Headshots [final 2nd revision] [posted 11-5-25]

All times are Eastern.

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THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 6, 2025

venue: The Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab at the Library for the Performing Arts
* 111 Amsterdam entrance: turn right at elevator, Lab on right
* 40 Lincoln Plaza entrance: head down hall, turn right, take elevator or walk stairs to “L”, Lab on left

6:00 pm BONUS PRE-CON SESSION: Queer Musicals. Robert W. Schneider  — Broadway historian, expert on musical theater and queer culture — will join early conference arrivals for an chat and discussion of his new book Queer Musicals: Boy Meets Girl to Jagged Little Pill. Attendees of the ATCANY2024 conference will recall Schneider’s session with Matt Koplik on “creative voices in theater podcasting” that kicked off our first day. ATCA host: Lou Harry.

Note: conference attendees at the venue prior to beginning of the book session may enjoy touring the new Library exhibit accessible on the Plaza level, Syncopated Stages: Black Disruptions to the Great White Way.

SEPARATE REGISTRATION REQUIRED AS SPACE IS LIMITED. Only individuals who have purchased conference tickets may RSVP to this session. Follow the instructions for purchasing a conference ticket, and select the RSVP no-cost ticket from the available ticket types. See area beneath the Agenda below for available tickets.

Event will conclude by 8pm; depart as needed for earlier show curtains.

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FRIDAY | NOVEMBER 7, 2025

venue: Club 135 by Industrious at 135 West 50th Street
* meeting on 2nd floor of the venue

Coffee, tea, and drinks provided by the venue.

9:00 am PROGRAM OPENING. ATCA members meet-and-greet, welcome, introduction of new members, committee chairs, and board members, discussion of themes of the weekend.

9:30 am SESSION: National Black Theatre: Ownership, Self-Determination, and Human Transformation. National Black Theatre, founded in 1968 by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, is the first revenue-generating Black art complex, longest continually-run Black theater in New York city, and one of the oldest theaters in the nation founded and consistently operated by a woman of color. NBT Executive Director Jonathan McCrory will offer a view of NBT’s theory of change (Black liberation + art + placemaking = transformation). ATCA host: Raven Snook.

10:45 am SESSION: Legacy Reflections From Veteran Broadway Publicist and Press Photographer. The married couple press representative Adrian Bryan-Brown and photographer Joan Marcus will discuss their careers and reflect on the landscape for publicists (more marketing now than ever before) and press photographers (now that images are everywhere). How have their professions changed, and how do those changes affect how critics navigate the theatrical landscape? There will be images! ATCA host: David John Chávez.

12 noon BREAK: Lunch provided by ATCA.

1:00 pm SESSION: Liberation and Feminism and the Road to Broadway. Liberation, an ensemble play by Bess Wohl that straddles family memoir, midwestern consciousness raising, political sisterhood in the 1970s, and a mother-daughter love letter. Its world premiere run began Off Broadway at Roundabout’s Laura Pels in the 2024-2025 season, and opened at the James Earl Jones on Broadway on October 28, 2025. Playwright Bess Wohl, director Whitney White, and cast members Betsy Aidem, Susannah Flood, and Kristolyn Lloyd will join us for a conversation about creativity and the wildly positive reception this production has received. ATCA host: Martha Wade Steketee.

2:00 pm SESSION: Reflections on the ATCA Helbing Mentorship Program. Join us for musings on this program’s vision and successes since its founding in 2021 to promote and amplify the voices of young LGBTQIA+ arts writers through scholarship, mentorship, and professional development. The first Helbing fellow Billy McEntee and second Helbing fellow D.R. Lewis will reflect on their project processes, origins, and the markets in which they promote their work. ATCA host: Jay Handelman.

3:00 pm SESSION: A New Look at Ragtime. Cast members Anna Grace Barlow, John Clay III, and Rodd Cyrus will join us for a conversation about the musical’s third Broadway production since its 1996 debut. ATCA host: Jay Handelman

4:00 pm SESSION: Discovering Broadway…away from Broadway. Five years ago, director Joel Kirk launched Discovering Broadway to further develop musicals through out-of-state workshops and concert presentations featuring some of Broadway’s leading stars, including Jessie Mueller, Christy Altomare, and Krysta Rodriguez. Discovering Broadway projects have included The Devil Wears Prada, Ever After, and A Beautiful Mind featuring Rodriguez and Derek Klena. Composer and lyricist Zoe Sarnak will join a discussion of this unique program and the challenging road for today’s musicals.  ATCA host: Lou Harry.

Program day will conclude by 5pm.

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SATURDAY | NOVEMBER 8, 2025

venue: Joe’s Pub at Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street

9:15 am PROGRAM OPENING.

9:30 am SESSION: Jordan E. Cooper and Kelundra Smith in Conversation. Jordan E. Cooper‘s Oh Happy Day, an October 2025 offering at the Public — an “outrageous reimaging of Noah’s Ark” — will certainly be part of a career-spanning discussion, with a stop at his Tony-nominated satire Ain’t No Mo‘ (2022-2023) that started with a production at the Public (2018-2018). At the time of his nomination, he was the youngest Black American playwright nominated. Kelundra Smith, ATCA member, cofounder of ATCA’s BEID committee and Edward Medina Prize, and director of publishing for TCG will lead the conversation and record the session for an upcoming edition of the American Theatre Offscript podcast.

10:30 am SESSION: From The Skin of Our Teeth to The Seat of Our Pants: Reimagining Wilder. When The Skin of Our Teeth opened in 1942, Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote, “Thank Mr. Wilder for a play that makes the theatre interesting again.” Now, eight decades after its premiere, composer and playwright Ethan Lipton has reimagined and musicalized the play as The Seat of Our Pants, opening at the Public November 2025. Venture into the process of adapting a beloved and tricky work for the musical form with Lipton, from inception and collaboration with literary executors, to melding one’s own signature sound with Wilder’s inimitable voice. ATCA host: D.R. Lewis.

11:30 am SESSION: Fourth Annual ATCA Edward Medina Prize for Excellence in Cultural Criticism. Presentation of the 2025 award to Citlali Pizarro, followed by a Critics in Conversation discussion with third Medina prize winner Christian Lewis. ATCA host: Nate Hinkle.

12:00 noon PERSPECTIVES IN CRITICISM. ATCA’S lecture series inaugurated with remarks by Clive Barnes in 1992 continues with Caribbean-American theater and culture critic and journalist Brittani Samuel. She is a co-editor of 3Views on Theater and her work has appeared in American Theatre Magazine, Broadway News, The New York Times, Brooklyn Rail, and other places on the Internet. She is an alum of the BIPOC Critics Lab and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Critics Institute, received the inaugural ATCA Edward Medina Prize for Excellence in Cultural Criticism, and was awarded the 2023-2024 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. Interviewer: Linda Armstrong, chief theater critic for the New York Amsterdam News.

Program day will conclude by 1pm.

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SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 9, 2025

venue: Museum of Broadway, 145 West 45th Street

SEPARATE REGISTRATION REQUIRED AS SPACE IS LIMITED AND THE MUSEUM WILL NEED TO PLAN FOR OUR SMALL GROUP TOURS. Only individuals who have purchased conference tickets may RSVP to this session. Follow the instructions for purchasing a conference ticket, and select the select this no-cost ticket from the available ticket types. See area beneath the Agenda below for available tickets.

10:45 am: registered conference attendees assemble at the Museum

11:00 am: group members convene in a Museum of Broadway conference room, with access to exhibits as directed by Museum personnel. Conversation and tours to follow.

Program day will conclude by 1pm.

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