Taking action on even a modest number of these suggestions will undoubtedly shake up the current puerility of much of American theater criticism.
theater-criticism
Theater Commentary: Can Audiences Rescue Theater Criticism?
Will working with audiences encourage stage companies and theater artists to go beyond the status quo? Or just cement them into their sweet spots?
Critical Condition: Why Be Negative? Don’t Ask “The New York Times”
If the New York Times can’t make a reasonable case for the need for discrimination rather than salesmanship, we are in real trouble.
Stage Commentary: “The Boston Globe” to Boston Theater — Drop Dead?
Critics were once seen as the ‘canaries in the mineshaft’ — now newspapers and magazines are closing down the mines.
Theater Interview: Writing about the American Stage
As a theatrical event, The American Stage anthology would have to be classified as a rousing vaudeville show: there are literary routines for all brows—high, middle, and low. The American Stage: Writings on Theater from Washington Irving to Tony Kushner, edited by Laurence Senelick, Library of America, 867 pages, $40. By Bill Marx “There is […]
Theater Commentary: George Jean Nathan — The Divine Devil of American Theater Criticism
“The best of the regular theater critics … the brightest America ever had.” – Eric Bentley “Intelligent play-goer number one.” – George Bernard Shaw “The truth is that Mr. Nathan is both a theatrical storehouse, full of the most voluminous and astonishing information, and a whole theatre in himself. He maintains an impetus and lustre […]
Response: Critical Justification
A 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.