Criticism and its Impact

Personal Stories and Reflections on Criticism and its Impact

The names listed below are not necessarily cosigners of this document but have all made/written the following public statements on the impact of theater reviews on their lives, livelihoods, mental health, careers and more. We put them below to offer specific examples. 

Paula Vogel

“We must have more diverse voices running companies and participating in the art making all the way through the critical reception of the art. It is in this last realm going toward blogs, going towards the Internet, and everyone basically starting to blog that we may finally open up reception to the work.” (Read more)

 

Mary Kathryn Nagle

“To be clear, Ms. Janiak’s prejudicial and ignorant remarks come with consequences. Namely, the perpetuation of a culture that blames Native women for the violence committed against them. Until or unless we address these assumptions, we will only perpetuate the societal attitudes and federal laws that allow the violence to continue.”

 

Yasmin Mikhaiel

“Often, when critiquing the work of artists of color, white critics trip over their racism (unconscious or not) and later fail to acknowledge their harms. Like microaggressions—someone asking, “Where are you really from?” or complementing a POC for “sounding educated”—such reviews have the power to compound and affect artists of color long after a show closes, from loss of ticket sales, to loss of future jobs, to loss of morale. So, we call for change. We call for voices of color to cover our shows and stamp a review into history so it’s not left to institutions and the inevitable supremacy of white minds. We call for white critics to be brave in their coverage and acknowledge realties different from their personal experiences.”

 

Julianna Marguiles 

(61:44 timestamp) “The one bad review is the one I’ll remember. Every night when I go out on that stage that’s going to be in my head. Not me being truthful to the work but some guy who I’ve never met who is judging my performance, that’s going to ruin my performance now. So who are you giving power to?”

 

Julie Felise Dubiner

“I have read the reviews of hers that have brought up the anger, pain, concern, and questions in the last few years. I’ve read and/or seen these plays, too. And, seeing the hurt and outrage from colleagues and friends for whom I have tremendous respect and fondness is powerful. And persuasive. I read reviews less and less as I’ve continued my career. Some of it is a lack of faith in the business of the news. And a lot more of it is that I have lost faith in many critics. No one I know has asked anyone to be a cheerleader, everyone I know can take their lumps. I do, however, think we have every right to expect our critics to be informed and actually to like theater and to root for theater to succeed. My career and a number of my friends’ careers were jumpstarted by Richard Christiansen’s great affection for our work, especially in the storefronts. But, more and more, I’ve seen good plays killed for sport. When the reviews we receive are mean-spirited, much less misogynist or racist, I believe we have a right and obligation to speak up.”

 

 

“A Call Against Critical Bias” – HowlRound

 

Gwendolyn Alker, New York University
Robin Bernstein, Harvard University
Meghan Brodie, Ursinus College
Jocelyn L. Buckner, Chapman University
Charlotte M. Canning, University of Texas at Austin
Soyica Colbert, Georgetown University
Jessica Del Vecchio, James Madison University
Jill Dolan, Princeton University
Miriam Felton-Dansky, Bard College
Lisa A. Freeman, University of Illinois at Chicago
Donatella Galella, University of California, Riverside
Holly Hughes, University of Michigan
Susan Jonas, 50/50 in 2020
Joan Lipkin, That Uppity Theatre Company
Lisa Merrill, Hofstra University
Jennifer-Scott Mobley, East Carolina University
Priscilla Page, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Jennifer Parker-Starbuck, University of Roehampton
Maya Roth, Georgetown University
Martha Wade Steketee, Freelance Dramaturg and Critic
Willa Taylor, Goodman Theatre
Lisa B. Thompson, University of Texas at Austin
Sara Warner, Cornell University
Stacy Wolf, Princeton University

“Critical endorsements directly impact ticket sales and the length of a show’s run, in addition to making or breaking a playwright’s opportunity for future work. Women and people of color have about the same chance of seeing their plays produced today as they did before they had the right to vote. Racial and gender disparity is a chronic problem in the American theatre, from play selection and development to casting and production. Approximately 75 percent of the plays produced in this country have white male authors, and the numbers are even higher for Broadway, which is not everyone’s aspiration but it is where the greatest critical attention is focused and where the prestige, power, and money reside.

“While there are a number of awards honoring female playmakers (e.g. the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, the Wendy Wasserstein Prize, and the Lilly Awards), as well as ample archives of plays by women (including the Kilroys List), we cannot hope to achieve parity in the theatre without a greater variety of critical voices. The American Theatre Critics Association supports women critics nationally and oversees several awards including the Primus Prize focused exclusively on female playwrights. Organizations like the Drama Desk support women in its ranks and demonstrate parity in staffing their board, nominating, and other committees. Yet the desired outcome of supported female critical voices in print and online outlets is as much aspiration as reality. In the ever-shrinking world of arts journalism, we call on news outlets to hire critics who reflect the diversity of the world in which we live.”

 

We See You White American Theatre

“Theater criticism for BIPOC productions, performers and theatres must be written through the lens of antiracism. If press outlets cannot train their white writers to use an anti-racist lands, we demand that they not review by productions until they contract BIPOC critics.

We demand that prominent Press outlets divest from salaried positions for critical review and feature writing, and invest in contract-based positions that are filled with at least 50% BIPOC writers.

We demand that theaters invest in independent media run by BIPOC journalists.”

 

Clint Ramos

“Part of the responsibility of journalists particularly at these institutions that are still predominately white is to make space. You have to deploy the right critics. Almost every play of color that I worked on, it’s never taken for what it is. It’s always reviewed for what it isn’t.” (The Flashpaper, Issue 3)

 

Kathia Woods

“Also majority of critics of color are freelancers. They can’t pitch if they don’t have access. The industry absolutely needs to do better by disabled critics. We have two films centering deafness and not one review by a deaf critic. Make that make sense 🤦🏾‍♀️”

 

Regina Victor and Tanuja Jagernauth

“In the past thirty years, the range and scope of American theatre has diversified, and yet most full-time critics in America are predominantly white. When theatremakers of color create art that seeks to prefigure the world we wish to live in, being reviewed by someone entrenched in a white supremacist hetero-patriarchal, capitalist gaze is counterproductive. Being reviewed by someone who is not able to meet our art where it is at is problematic.”

 

Katori Hall

“The Mountaintop then arrived on Broadway, with Samuel L Jackson and Angela Bassett in the cast. In the US it was met with a more muted critical reaction, particularly from white male reviewers, though it still recouped its investment – a Broadway rarity.

“Artistically, I was doing things that I felt were so true to my impulses,” Hall says. “I actually felt very frustrated that what I was doing did not feel like it was being respected in the way that I knew it should have been.”

Prestigious productions followed, as did more awards and a residency at New York’s Signature Theatre. Yet the critical response to her work remained mixed. “If you are scared of a certain type of Black person, you’re going to be like, ‘I don’t know, this play … I don’t understand it,’” she says.”

 

Antoinnette Nwandu

“When Critics Don’t Like Their Reflection” Why my play ‘Pass Over’ inspired a whitelash—and a backlash against it from artists who felt targeted.

 

Bear Belinger

“Critics are as much a part of the art community as the rest of us. And that community thrives on our ability to come together for a short period of time, with mutual respect, to perform our duties. We do not have the typical structure of a work environment, but that does not, ethically, remove us from the burden of extending the same protections the 1964 Civil Rights Act has attempted to grant to employees since its implementation. We look for a fair, safe, and equitable work environment; one free of discrimination on the basis of gender, sex, race, religion, orientation, age, or disability. To act as if critics are not a part of our arrangement, and therefore absolve ourselves of any blame, is irresponsible to the community we attempt to cultivate and the work in which we participate.

We grant critics access to our shows because our economies depend on one another. Critics can not exist without art to criticize and art does not propagate without the press to promote it. We expect a level of professionalism from every artist that walks through the door; and, if they do not live up to that level of professionalism, we replace them. It happens during the interview process, it happens during the rehearsal process, and, occasionally, it even happens during the run of a show. It is time to do so with a critic who has long not lived up to that same standard.

What does this have to do with my refusal to perform for Hedy? The only economy an actor has in this business is their body. I get to choose where and when I perform and for whom. I will not participate in an arrangement that continues the degradation of PoC on a platform as large as the Sun-Times. It would be irresponsible of me as an ally and advocate and, personally, dangerous for me as a Black man. I do not believe I should be made to humanize characters and issues for someone who will turn around and use my art to advocate, without research or data, for racist policies and measures that will directly affect my life. When someone uses their platform, as a critic, to advocate for racial profiling, despite the wide breadth of scientific evidence that details its ineffectiveness, rather than talk about the merits of the production and the performances, they are advocating for more unwarranted police interactions which could lead to my incarceration or death. The fact that she has continued to do this with no evidence, no retractions, and no apologies, despite the constant backlash of education, fury, and pleading for her understanding, leads me to believe she is willfully putting people who look like me in danger. Your continued insistence on putting these at-risk communities in front of her is a party to that endangerment and is directly contradictory to your stated desire to promote a diverse and inclusive environment for artistic expression that represents the city in which you reside and I can not participate in that.”

 

Lauren Gunderson

“I can tell you that more than being disliked, playwrights fear being misunderstood. That’s the worst. That’s when it feels like the review is for a play you didn’t write. No one learns from that.

I can tell you that reviews of new plays are powerful forces in that play’s future.

I can tell you that people outside of our towns read reviews to decide whether or not they’re going to even read the play. Not everyone does this. But a lot of people do. It’s sad and unproductive and does not trust the new play process.

I can tell you that plays need to grow and mature and that usually takes at least one full production plus some distance plus another rehearsal process for the second production before it’s done .… ish.

I can tell you that sometimes new plays die too early because of poor critical reception. We all know this happens. I hate this, I’m sure many of you do too.

I can also tell you that I’m not going to accept that there is an inherent antagonism between critic and theatre-makers. Because we’re all theatre-makers. We are all audience-builders, and art-advocates, and theatre champions. Of course we are.

But this is where it gets tricky. Our relationship is complicated, and as much as I have the right to build a play as I see fit, y’all have the right and duty to convey your opinion of it. And sometimes that opinion is painfully powerful and stunts a new play before it starts.”

 

Lily Janiack

“Both theater leadership and criticism are vulnerable to artistic stagnation, and both types of jobs have long been plagued by racial inequities — which is also the case in many other types of industries, but we might reasonably expect stricter accountability from positions in the public trust.”

 

Charles Isherwood

“For similar reasons, however, one could argue – and one is! — that perhaps it’s time to allow Mr. Rapp’s writing to be assessed by a critic who responds more naturally or sympathetically to his aesthetic. Criticism is, after all, a subjective form of writing. There is no right answer. And since the artistic staff at some of the city’s major theaters – and a deep roster of acting talent – obviously appreciates something in Mr. Rapp’s writing that I continually do not, perhaps it would be in everyone’s best interests to let another writer weigh in on Mr. Rapp’s future work.”

 

Jordan Roth

“I just saw the most astonishing piece of performance art. After viewing Sweet Charity, a musical in which the entitled male gaze constantly aims to eviscerate the indomitable female spirit, The New Yorker’s critic Hilton Als expertly continued that theme in his review. By hurling every sexist cliché in the book at “woman’s director” Leigh Silverman (yup, he even got that one in), he takes her to task for daring to put herself and other “woman artists” on a dance hall stage for anything other than his (or rather all men’s) mindless enjoyment. Now that the greatest collective character assassination in all the land has been mission accomplished against Hillary Clinton, we’re all free to take down women of purpose everywhere. It’s open season, guys… Ready, aim, fire!

There are so many highlights it’s hard to pick a favorite. Als describes Sweet Charity star Sutton Foster’s charm as “clear and unaffected as her complexion.” There’s comparing Foster with her “only rival, Kelli O’Hara” because, of course the only thing two talented women of similar age in the same field could be are cat-bitching enemies. But the best is so extraordinary it deserves to be quoted in full: “The director, Leigh Silverman, is adept at throwing ash on soap bubbles. The problem is that she’s too serious about theatre; she wants her shows to count — to have a moral purpose. Sometimes a play is just a play, and not all of her productions can bear the weight of her imperative.” So basically: Leigh, sweetie, you should really smile more and stop furrowing your pretty brow with all that serious stuff. Don’t try to say something that matters. No man likes a girl who thinks too much.”

Mark Brown

“Theatre critics need to think harder about whether their own ethnicity and relative privilege means they are the right people to write about certain topics, new guidelines drawn up by the union Equity argue.

“It has published recommendations for theatre critics when they write about race, urging them to guard against unconscious bias and also consciously consider the relevance of race or ethnicity in their reviews.

“The union said the guidance came from ‘a long, problematic history of Equity members receiving criticism involving their race, ethnicity or skin colour with no objective, evidential reason’.”

 

Hailey Feiffer

“We don’t have the critical infrastructure set up to support plays that are by writers of marginalized groups, which includes women, and which might not appeal to the sensibility of the vast majority of major critics.“

 

Cara Joy David

“This is not a new discussion. Women and people of color have been complaining for decades that the critical pool does not represent the population as a whole or the population of artists. Women in particular have questioned why, if the majority of Broadway audiences are women and the majority of ticket buyers are women (which both held true by a wide margin the last time The Broadway League released statistics), more of the tastemakers are not women.”

 

Mfoniso Udofia

“Men have the whole society — our society is built as a patriarchy — and I do believe the higher up you are on whatever power ladder, the harder it is to see. It’s so difficult when the whole society is built around you and your gaze to understand that the reason why you might not like something is, it is not for you. That kind of power is like blindness and then from that point you can’t really critique. You’re not listening anymore, because there’s the assumption that it should be made for you and it should make sense to you.”

 

Tonya Pinkins

from Open Letter To Jesse Green of the New York Times

“White critics and audiences prefer the confirmation bias that the world of their imagination is the only reality. And they have the media power to sell their point of view to the world.”