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...
A new book on theater criticism, Refereeing the Muses by Bob Abelman and Creryl Kushner, has the good taste to use ATCA’s old friend on its cover. The 1865 caricature “Promenade of an Influential Critic” by Honore Daumier has served as ATCA’s official logo since 1974. Appearances so dramatically...
For HowlRound’s week on criticism, go here. Some of the contributions:Wendy Rosenfield on really wanting to be a critic and what criticism’s for, here.Jason Zinoman on the critic’s passion, here.Rob Weinert-Kendt on the personal drive to criticism, here.John Moore on the economics of reviewing as newspapers abandon the field, here. ...
After 20 years, John Lahr is stepping down as chief theater critic for the New Yorker, where he won the George Jean Nathan Award in 1994 (he had previously won it in 1969 for reviews in the Evergreen Review and Village Voice). Living mainly in London, he...
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...
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...
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...