Here, you’ll find content about the art and practice of theatre criticism. Many pieces grapple with questions of how to diversify the field, making it more accessible for young people, queer folx, and critics of color. This section also contains all the pieces of criticism in the Journal, which we call “NewCrits.” NewCrits analyze productions and go beyond “thumbs up, thumbs down” reviews, placing the work(s) in question in a larger, broader context—whether that’s the context of the time or place it’s done in, the artists’ body of work, or its genre. Are you interested in writing a NewCrit? Check out our guidelines and best practices!
The Latest
Essay
Black Survival and Cyclical Fate in Hang Time
by Ciaran Short
4 June 2026
Essay
On a Theatrical Pilgrimage to See Carolina Bianchi and Cara de Cavalo's Chapter II: The Brotherhood
by Amanda L. Andrei
6 April 2026
Essay
How The Last Country Amplifies Stories of Immigration and Belonging in South Africa
Srila Nayak reviews the American Repertory Theater’s production of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and highlights how the production uses music, color-consious-casting, spectacle, and stage-magic.
Lily Janiak and Artistic Director of Cal Shakes Jon Moscone talk about the impact of Janiak’s criticism of the play American Night at California Shakespeare Theater and the controversy it stirred.
In accepting the single story that "God’s Work" does not belong in a downtown Chicago theater, do we contribute to the silencing of the voices of our youth? I believe "God’s Work" is just as worthy of embodiment on stage as "Our Class" or any other current Chicago production, regardless of the age of the ensemble members telling it.
Dani Snyder-Young writes about the Chicago-based Albany Park Theatre Project, a youth theatre ensemble. She reviews APTP's 2014 remounted production of God's Work, at the Goodman Theatre.
Jonathan Mandell looks at the phenomenon of "snubs" in theatre awards today and throughout history, touching on the complexities of nominating committees.
And although I’m proud of the production and of the nearly-all Latina/o creative team that gave Mariela en el Desierto an authentic voice, an issue arose as the last weekend of performances approached: No critics from the periodicals in the Atlanta area had attended or reviewed the show.
Patricia Davis writes about The Freedom Theatre in Palestine, focusing on its controversial work with youth and its history, which includes the assassination of their founder.
Based on an actual photograph, the main action of Lucy Kirkwood’s play is an American photojournalist’s unyielding quest to unlock the mystery of a photograph taken by him during the 1989 student revolution and military crackdown in Tiananmen Square. In the photograph in question a slender man, who goes on to be labeled the “Tank Man,” stands in front of a line of military tanks rolling into the Square. While it is something of a truism that the theater is, as a character in Don Quixote says, “the mirror of human life” sometimes theater can serve as a path-breaking reflection on another art form.
Bess Rowen interviews Christopher Andrew Loar of the New York Neo-Futurists, creator/director of The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill.
Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville presented Perspectives in Theatre Criticism livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 3 April at 11 a.m. PDT/ 1 p.m. CDT / 2 p.m. EDT / 18:00 GMT / 7 p.m. BST (London).
Matt McGeachy writes about Modern Times Stage Company's Forgiveness: A Theatrical Poem, an intense movement piece exploring the dialetic between forgiveness and forgetting.
Dani Snyder-Young reviews the (now closed) Next Theatre Company production of Kirsten Greenidge’s Luck of the Irish in the context of Evanston, Illinois
looks at how Magic Theatre's initative for young theatre-goes went beyond a discount, and how the premiere of Taylor Mac's Hir at the Magic complemented their earlier production of Buried Child.
