”Regional theater wasn’t a big turn-on for me when I was a theater student in the late 1980s, early 1990s. Off-Broadway was cool; off-off-Broadway was cooler. Those subscription-based behemoths scattered around the country like giant shopping malls sounded dorky to me… . ” Charles McNulty, theater...
In the drop-down Commentary menu (above), a new category, Position Papers, has joined Perspectives in Criticism (the ATCA series that began in 1992) and Criticism in Controversy (newsy battles that start on the Home page before accumulating there). The newest Position Paper transcribes the Perspectives in Criticism panel...
Alison Croggon gave this talk on April 11 at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Brisbane, Australia, as part of the Low-Fi Forum organised by Arts Queensland. You can read it in its original setting here, where you can also read and add comments. A couple of quotes: “Criticism...
“Is there a future for criticism?” asked A.O. Scott in the NYT, March 31, 2010. He began: “TWO weeks ago I went to Atlanta to give a talk at a conference devoted, in part, to ‘The Future of Criticism.’ The gist of my remarks was that there is...
The Perspectives in Criticism talk at ATCA’s weekend conference in NYC (Feb., 2011) was coordinated by Sherry Eaker (Back Stage), who gathered playwrights Adam Rapp and Richard Nelson, artistic director Tim Sanford and producer-director-playwright Emily Mann to discuss the role of the contemporary critic. It was a stimulating discussion, one of ATCA’s best. Sherry deserves...
Feb. 14, 2011 — At ATCA’s recent New York weekend conference, playwright-director-artistic director Emily Mann, one of the Perspectives in Criticism panel (along with playwrights Adam Rapp and Richard Nelson and artistic director Tim Sanford), preemptively set a high initial bar for all critics by reading aloud Howard Clurman’s 1964 “The Complete Critic’s...
In The Guardian, 17 April 2010, the playwright replied to his critics by arguing that good theater should never be confused with journalism. A few quotes: “Journalism is life with the mystery taken out. Art is life with the mystery restored.” …“If we accept the simple...