Persona Non Grata
When should a play be labeled dated and consigned to the junk heap of time? No playwright is safe from the charge of being called passé: one reviewer’s breath of fresh air from the past is another’s antiquated wheeze.
Read MoreA certain number of people (not huge) want to read critics who take the arts seriously, who do more than tell readers what is worth spending their money on.
Read MoreThe caricature of the theater critic as spoilsport still pops up, pushed by rescuers of the “injured” who enjoy delivering self-congratulatory whippings. No naysayers are allowed –- it hurts business. For once, how about looking at the ways that yeasayers do a disservice to theater and the craft of criticism? By Bill Marx Are theater…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx On June 21, the Boston Foundation announced that the Citi Performing Arts Center (CPAC, formerly the Wang Center for the Performing Arts) would be receiving $225,000. This is not only the largest single grant given to any institution for the quarter; it is the most money (by a long shot) the Wang/CPAC…
Read MoreHot on the heels of critic Sven Birkerts’s lament last week in the Boston Globe’s Ideas section that the blogosphere threatens shared literary culture comes Globe book critic Gail Caldwell’s moan that “the scribes and priests no longer hold the keys to the holy word; the word itself has splintered into an infinite series of…
Read MoreYesterday, a Boston Globe editorial asked that Josiah Spaulding, Jr., president of the Citi Performing Arts Center (CPAC) be replaced. Of course he should go, but that will not solve the CPAC’s problems. Yesterday, a Boston Globe editorial asked that Josiah Spaulding, Jr., president of the Citi Performing Arts Center (CPAC) be replaced. The suggestion…
Read MoreA growing number of sites and e-zines are bringing wit, intelligence, high standards, and editorial independence to critical coverage of the arts online.
Read MoreLet me get this straight. President and CEO of the Citi Performing Arts Center (CPAC), Josiah Spaulding Jr., presides over five straight years of budget deficits and arts programming cuts, including slashing the budget of this summer’s Shakespeare on the Common production, and he earns a $1.265 million bonus. This is shameful, especially given that…
Read MoreThe genuine divide is between those critics who see reviewing as an end in itself and those who see it as a means towards marketing or career boosting.
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Arts Criticism Commentary: In Defense of Negative Book Reviews
“Criticism will always have the force of the child in the story about the emperor’s new clothes, because there will always be naked emperors who everybody says are wearing today’s Crown Jewels.” — Eric Bentley
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