New Article: Critics Emerge From the Shadows -- As Playwrights!

I wrote a Web Exclusive story for Back Stage on how the Abingdon Theatre Company is starting its season with two plays by critics -- first The English Channel by Robert Brustein and then Beachwood Channel by L.A. Weekly theatre editor Steven Leigh Morris.

Here's the tease:

By definition, the critic-artist dynamic is adversarial: Writers may toil for years, followed by directors and often dramaturges fine-tuning things, followed by actors leaping into the fray as the play at last takes shape. Then, after so much effort to calibrate each element just so, who crashes the party but that caviling coven of critics, none tied to the production process, all ready to brandish pens and render their verdicts for the public, be it caustic or complimentary. Who can blame artists for their frustrations and fury?

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An Interview with Jan Buttram of the Abingdon Theatre Company

Here's an interview I did with Jan Buttram, artistic director of the Abingdon Theatre Company. I've known her for a long time but this was out first sit-down, geared in part to all those lovely actors, of course. She said some neat stuff.

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