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Whoever fills the NYT theater vacancy (we all have our short lists), it’s good to remember: This person will be getting a six-figure staff job, at least $200k. They’ll immediately enjoy a tax bracket most of us will never know.
Considering such bank and power, I have a personal wish list for what this person might do. When theater returns. In no particular order:
•Travel. Review shows at regional theaters. Critics from Chicago, LA, D.C., etc. cover Broadway all the time. Return the compliment.
•Travel. Review shows at regional theaters. Critics from Chicago, LA, D.C., etc. cover Broadway all the time. Return the compliment.
•Have a vision. Whether it’s about content, form, or both, have a POV. Know American playwriting of the past century or so, the historic companies and movements, and have an opinion or theory about how American theater has evolved, in form and content, over the decades.
•Balance a healthy interest in UK theater with an eagerness to learn about the rest of the world’s theater cultures.
•Talk to playwrights. Ask about what they do. Seek out and celebrate new voices. Have an opinion about new plays and new practices.
•Talk to playwrights. Ask about what they do. Seek out and celebrate new voices. Have an opinion about new plays and new practices.
•Watch a rehearsal of a piece you will not review.
•Write think pieces at least once a year about the state of theater, not just Broadway and Off. Dare to look at the big picture and say what you're *not* seeing.
•Be circumspect about celebrities.
•Write think pieces at least once a year about the state of theater, not just Broadway and Off. Dare to look at the big picture and say what you're *not* seeing.
•Be circumspect about celebrities.
•Talk to other critics, be on panels with them, don’t pretend you’re the only theater critic in the country who matters. Because you’re not. That perpetuates a monolithic lie that is poison to theatrical and critical discourse. I’m perpetuating the same lie right now.
•Accept that theater is the profane zone where identity and ideology go to fight, and your job is not to moralize or award a winner, it’s to report on how the fight went.
•Oh, and be devastatingly witty, irreverent, and insightful all the time.
•Oh, and be devastatingly witty, irreverent, and insightful all the time.
