David Rooney

Variety, the so-called show biz bible, has jettisoned the full-time theater critic position held by David Rooney, simultaneously saying it will continue to review theater with the same frequency. (How many of us have heard that before?) Links to two commentaries: “The iceberg of serious, informed theatrical criticism lost another chunk,” says Kenneth Jones in playbill.com; “The critical bloodletting continues,” says Adam Feldman in Time Out N.Y.

But the best read yet on the subject (you know it’ll be good when you see the illustration, Brueghel’s “Tower of Babel”) is “Eliminate theatre critics at your peril” by David Cote in The Guardian. He calls critics “the dung beetles of culture” — and that’s praise. Read some reader response, too, the kind you rarely get in the U.S.

Happier news

Cheers for Richard Christiansen. On March 1, Chicago’s Tony-winning Victory Gardens Theater named its new 109-seat studio theater after the retired chief critic for the Chicago Tribune, a key figure in the growth and recognition of Off-Loop Chicago professional theater and a longtime ATCA member. Read more under Milestones: Achievements, or enjoy this eye-witness tribute by Chris Jones and this one, on our ATCA Blog page, where Jonathan Abarbanel reports from the event.

Elizabeth Maupin, former ATCA chair and long-time critic for the Orlando Sentinel, retired Feb. 26 — see her announcement in the Transitions section of the Milestones page. You can also read her final Sentinel blog; in bidding farewell to 9,609 days at the Sentinel, she promises to continue writing about theater in other ways. Check out the wonderful reader comments attached.

Explore the new ATCA website. It’s still under construction, but it’s not too early to give us your comments and suggestions.

ATCA has selected six finalists for the 2010 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, recognizing the best scripts which premiered professionally outside New York City during 2009.

The award and two citations will be presented March 27 at Actors Theatre of Louisville during the Humana Festival of New American Plays. The award includes a commemorative plaque and $25,000; the citations carry prizes of $7,500 each.

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As a member of the International Association of Theater Critics, ATCA was asked to vote on a proposed new IATC Code of Practice; the dealine was March 10. ATCA International Chair Jeffrey Eric Jenkins
reports that the vote was 65-0 in favor. You can still read his explanation and recommendation, as well as the English and French texts of the proposed code.

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The Tony Awards’ decision last July to take the vote away from the Broadway “first night list,” which includes the major New York-area critics and makes up about 13% of the electorate, continues to generate heat. ATCA entered the discussion in August with a letter of protest from Chris Rawson, chair of the executive committee, to the leaders of the Theatre Wing and Broadway League. A report by Randy Gener on “Critics’ Right to Vote?” in the Dec. issue of American Theatre quoted liberally from Rawson’s letter, which is echoed in the lead letter in the Feb. issue. Word from New York is that critics may well be re-enfranchised for 2011.

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