Read Online The Critics Say...: 57 Theater Reviewers in New York and Beyond Discuss Their Craft and Its Future by Matt Windman - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Matt Windman
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with its L.A. theater critic, so I went to the editors and said, “I’ve been doing these reviews. Why don’t you let me do it?” And that’s how it started.
Terry Teachout: I come from a small town in Southeast Missouri. When I was in junior high school, I saw a couple of college productions and became fascinated. I did theater in high school and college. I played the Noël Coward character in The Man Who Came to Dinner . I was the Artful Dodger in Oliver! , and my voice changed midway through the run. I was the fiddler in Fiddler on the Roof , and I fell off the roof on the last night as the curtain came down. (I held the violin over my head, and nothing got broken.)
I’ve been writing for publications since I was in high school. I was the Kansas City Star ’s jazz critic and second-string classical critic while I was still an undergrad. I was also a working musician. Although I decided to concentrate on being a writer, I’ve always thought of myself as a musician first because that’s what my training is in.
I remained interested in theater. I wrote about it quite a bit when I had a Washington Post column about the arts in New York. I wasn’t new to it by any means when Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal asked me to lunch to discuss the paper’s arts coverage. A half hour into the lunch, he said, “We’d like to start a drama column. Would you like to write it?” I was completely blindsided. I said, “Let’s try it as an experiment.” We started running columns every other week, and it very quickly became weekly. It then became a permanent arrangement, and I’ve been doing it ever since.
Alexis Soloski: A lot of us, at some point, were actors, directors, or playwrights. As an undergrad at Yale, I trained as an actor, while also studying the history of ideas. My major in college was the humanities—basically Western thought—and there were some nice crossovers, like the aesthetic theories of Lessing, who was a dramaturg in Hamburg. I was also dragooned into reviewing plays for the school paper, including undergraduate work, plays by Yale School of Drama students, and productions at Yale Repertory Theatre and the Long Wharf Theatre.
When I was a senior, one of my professors, Marc Robinson, who used to write for the Village Voice , came to me and said, “The Voice needs a theater intern.” I said, “I’m a work-study kid. They don’t pay their interns, and I can’t afford to take the train back and forth to New York twice a week.” When I went home, I remembered how I used to run to the library to get the copy of the Village Voice every Wednesday. It was very much my resource. It had a focus on experimental and avant-garde art and theater, which was what I was interested in. I called Professor Robinson’s office voicemail at two in the morning and said, “Of course, I’ll do it.” I signed up for some science experiment that tested my startle reflex and made enough money to start taking the train back and forth. After a couple of weeks, the editor at the Voice started assigning me very short pieces. Once I graduated, I started copyediting, and eventually, I became a writer there.
Chris Jones: I started out as an academic. I got a PhD in theater 35 years ago. I taught classes, directed, and lived the life of a college professor. But when I was still very young and in graduate school, I started covering out-of-town shows for Variety . I became fascinated by the whole nature of touring theater. To this day, I have a real interest in and affection for the idea of taking your show out on the road, even though that business has become a pale shadow of its former self.
About 12 years ago, Richard Christiansen, my predecessor at the Chicago Tribune , retired. The job became open, and I thought, This is an amazing theater city, and there are very few of these jobs. So I quit everything else. I gave up tenure and the academic life and became a journalist. And here I survive, despite all the
Terry Teachout: I come from a small town in Southeast Missouri. When I was in junior high school, I saw a couple of college productions and became fascinated. I did theater in high school and college. I played the Noël Coward character in The Man Who Came to Dinner . I was the Artful Dodger in Oliver! , and my voice changed midway through the run. I was the fiddler in Fiddler on the Roof , and I fell off the roof on the last night as the curtain came down. (I held the violin over my head, and nothing got broken.)
I’ve been writing for publications since I was in high school. I was the Kansas City Star ’s jazz critic and second-string classical critic while I was still an undergrad. I was also a working musician. Although I decided to concentrate on being a writer, I’ve always thought of myself as a musician first because that’s what my training is in.
I remained interested in theater. I wrote about it quite a bit when I had a Washington Post column about the arts in New York. I wasn’t new to it by any means when Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal asked me to lunch to discuss the paper’s arts coverage. A half hour into the lunch, he said, “We’d like to start a drama column. Would you like to write it?” I was completely blindsided. I said, “Let’s try it as an experiment.” We started running columns every other week, and it very quickly became weekly. It then became a permanent arrangement, and I’ve been doing it ever since.
Alexis Soloski: A lot of us, at some point, were actors, directors, or playwrights. As an undergrad at Yale, I trained as an actor, while also studying the history of ideas. My major in college was the humanities—basically Western thought—and there were some nice crossovers, like the aesthetic theories of Lessing, who was a dramaturg in Hamburg. I was also dragooned into reviewing plays for the school paper, including undergraduate work, plays by Yale School of Drama students, and productions at Yale Repertory Theatre and the Long Wharf Theatre.
When I was a senior, one of my professors, Marc Robinson, who used to write for the Village Voice , came to me and said, “The Voice needs a theater intern.” I said, “I’m a work-study kid. They don’t pay their interns, and I can’t afford to take the train back and forth to New York twice a week.” When I went home, I remembered how I used to run to the library to get the copy of the Village Voice every Wednesday. It was very much my resource. It had a focus on experimental and avant-garde art and theater, which was what I was interested in. I called Professor Robinson’s office voicemail at two in the morning and said, “Of course, I’ll do it.” I signed up for some science experiment that tested my startle reflex and made enough money to start taking the train back and forth. After a couple of weeks, the editor at the Voice started assigning me very short pieces. Once I graduated, I started copyediting, and eventually, I became a writer there.
Chris Jones: I started out as an academic. I got a PhD in theater 35 years ago. I taught classes, directed, and lived the life of a college professor. But when I was still very young and in graduate school, I started covering out-of-town shows for Variety . I became fascinated by the whole nature of touring theater. To this day, I have a real interest in and affection for the idea of taking your show out on the road, even though that business has become a pale shadow of its former self.
About 12 years ago, Richard Christiansen, my predecessor at the Chicago Tribune , retired. The job became open, and I thought, This is an amazing theater city, and there are very few of these jobs. So I quit everything else. I gave up tenure and the academic life and became a journalist. And here I survive, despite all the
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