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
Jean Tarbox discusses Wesleyan University’s Zoom adaptation of The Method Gun as a radical invention that invited audiences to see and interpret reality on a deeper, more perceptual basis.
Rebecca Salzhauer writes about Finish the Fight, a piece of online theatre that reminds viewers how theatre is a communion, a two-sided contract between storyteller and story-hearer, bound by the terms of being alive.
Esther Fernández talks about closing the gap that separates classical and contemporary theatre and discusses the piece En otro reino extraño, a polyphonic work composed of scenes from Lope de Vega’s plays; snippets of informal conversations between the actors in Zoom chats; poems transmogrified into electrocumbia, punk, and pop songs; and video montage.
Moderated by Nabilah Said, with panelists Loo Zihan, Teo Xiao Ting, and Jocelyn Chng
Tuesday 4 August 2020
Singapore
ArtsEquator presented Can Critics Criticise during a Pandemic? livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 4 August 2020 at 7:30 p.m. SGT (Singapore, UTC +8) / 8:30 p.m. KST (Seoul, UTC +9) / 12:30 BST (London, UTC +1) / 13:30 CEST (Berlin, UTC +2) / 7:30 a.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4)
Chloe Hyman reflects on M Sloth Levine’s play Nosferatu, The Vampyr, which she believes serves to dismantle anti-Semitic tropes, due to the fact that Jewishness and queerness are inextricably bound in vampire lore.
Barbara Fuchs writes about Game Over, a devised piece by the Spanish company Grumelot, which was a profound exploration of storytelling across multiple platforms, including Zoom, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Spotify.
Neil Blackadder writes about three productions of Juliet at Chicago’s Theatre Y, including the most recent one that configured and filled the small black-box space in an unusual way.
Playwright Lauren Gunderson presented a conversation Theatre Journalist + Playwright - Lauren talks with Diep Tran livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 16 April 2020 at 11 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC-7) / 1 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC-5) / 2 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC-4).
Roxanne Schroeder-Arce talks about Dallas Children’s Theater’s production of ANDI BOI and the importance of seeing trans stories in theatre for young audiences.
Jordan Ealey and Leticia Ridley discuss the transformative power of Aleshea Harris' What to Send Up When it Goes Down by centering Black rage, ritual, and healing on this episode of the Daughters of Lorraine podcast.
Linnea Valdivia discusses the weight of reviews in theatre, the failure in arts journalism to approach queer stories with respect and empathy, how a critic should react if they misgender an artist, and more.
On this episode of the Daughters of Lorraine Podcast, Jordan Ealey and Leticia Ridley review Arena Stage's production of August Wilson’s Jitney, directed by Black theatre legend, Ruben Santiago-Hudson.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in the Age of Neurodivergence
20 November 2019
Leon J. Hilton explores the recent production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest created by Spectrum Theatre Ensemble, a company dedicated to making theatre with and for neurodiverse artists and communities.
with Arts Boston, Boston Center for the Arts, and The Front Porch Arts Collective in Boston, MA
Tuesday 19 November 2019
Boston, MA
Arts Boston, Boston Center for the Arts, and The Front Porch Arts Collective presented the Live Arts Criticism Panel livestreamed from Boston, MA on the commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 19 November at 2:30 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC-8) / 4:30 p.m. CST (Chicago, UST-6) / 5:30 p.m. EST (Boston, UTC-5).
Beatrice Perez-Arche and Livian Yeh have a conversation about their experience in the Young Critics Program, “cancel culture” and criticism, gaining confidence, and more.
For this episode of the Daughters of Lorraine Podcast, Jordan Ealey and Leticia Ridley focus on the histories and enduring legacies of lynching dramas, covering early twentieth century history of Black women playwrights using theatre for protest ends, and situating them in Black feminism and Black radical tradition.
Reactor – a space for creative experiments in Cluj, Romania presented the debate The Need for Critical Analysis of Artistic Products livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Monday 11 November 2019 at 8 a.m. PST (Vancouver, UTC -8) / 11 a.m. EST (New York, UTC -5) / 16:00 GMT (London, UTC +0) / 17:00 CET (Budapest, UTC +1) / 18:00 EET (Cluj, UTC +2).
On this first episode of Daughters of Lorraine Podcast, Leticia Ridley and Jordan Ealey discuss Woolly Mammoth's production of Fairview by Jackie Sibbilies Drury, its theoretical and theatrical interventions, as well as situate it in the historical and cultural contexts of Black theatre.
On the Young Critics Program at Front Porch Arts Collective in Boston
27 October 2019
Pascale Florestal talks about the lack of critics of color in theatre and creating a training program in Boston, through Front Porch Arts Collective, to counter this problem.
