Theatre criticism in the digital age to be discussed at Brock this weekend

This week on my radio programme Inquisitive Minds on the Brock University radio station, CFBU-FM, I talked with Dr. Karen Fricker, assistant professor of Dramatic Arts about a colloquium being held Friday and Saturday of this week on The Changing Face of Theatre Criticism in the Digital Age.

As an occasional theatre reviewer myself for almost 40 years now, I am looking forward to attending at least some of the discussions to be held in the Sankey Chamber at Brock.  It is free and open to the public, by the way.

Dr. Fricker elaborated on the overall thrust of the colloquium in our interview, explaining the panelists will essentially be debating the question:  is everyone a critic?

Ah yes, the eternal question for theatre-goers.  Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I'm sure you've had yours over the years, as have I.  But what qualifies as legitimate theatre criticism today anyway with social media being so pervasive in modern society.

I often see postings on Twitter and Facebook detailing someone's thoughts on a performance they have attended (or more often, while they are attending it, but that is another debate we can have some other time) and they are all very well and good, but what purpose do they serve?  What constitutes valid criticism today and who is qualified to offer it?

If you follow theatre criticism in print journalism in this country, you don't have that many choices anymore, frankly.  Arts reporting is becoming such a rare commodity in the newspaper world it is almost nonexistent in many cities.  Here in Niagara, for example, my esteemed colleague at the chain of Sun Media papers, John Law, carries the arts banner high and proud day in and day out.  But he is pretty much it here in Niagara.

There is online reviewing offered by local arts blogger James Wegg and myself, too on occasion, but beyond that the well is essentially dry around these parts.

You look to Toronto for most of the theatrical print journalism now, and even then, you have two main contributors:  Richard Ouzounian of the Toronto Star and J. Kelly Nestruck of The Globe and Mail.  Both are the established leaders in their field and cover a wide swath of live theatre both inside and outside of Toronto proper.  Mr. Nestruck, in fact, is clearly attempting to become something of a "national" theatre critic, which means he is almost constantly in transit to somewhere in this vast country.

So, what is to become of the art form known as theatre criticism in this new digital age and who will be taking part in it?  Those are questions that will no doubt be posed this weekend at the colloquium at Brock, and both Mr. Ouzounian and Mr. Nestruck will both be in attendance on Saturday to weigh in on the subject.

Dr. Fricker outlined the panel participants for the event held over two days, and the list is quite substantial.  On Friday, events begin at 2 pm with a presentation by Brock dramatic arts students from the third-year class, Studies in Praxis - Theatre Criticism.  That will be followed at 2:30 by a panel discussion "Critics and the arts in Niagara" which will run through to 4 pm.  Panel participants are as follows:

- Jill Dolan, Princeton University professor and noted theatre blogger
- Monica Dufault, artistic director, Essential Collective Theatre
- David Fancy, associate professor of Dramatic Arts, Brock University; co-artistic director, neXt Company Theatre (chair)
- John Law, arts and entertainment writer, Sun Media
- Sara Palmieri, co-founder, In the Soil Festival
- Stephen Remus, minister of energy, minds and resources, Niagara Artists Centre (NAC)
- Steve Solski, director, St. Catharines Centre for the Performing Arts
- Candice Turner-Smith, managing director, Niagara Symphony Orchestra

The second panel on Friday begins at 4:15 and runs to 5:45 with the discussion "Embedded criticism:  a new way forward, or criticism as PR?"  Panel participants are as follows:

- Maddy Costa, critic and blogger
- Dr. Karen Fricker
- Andy Horwitz, founder, culturebot.org
- Jackie Maxwell, artistic director, Shaw Festival
- Jacob Gallagher-Ross, assistant professor of theatre, University of Buffalo (respondent)
- Lawrence Switzky, assistant professor of Drama, University of Toronto at Mississauga (chair)

Things heat up on Saturday morning and continue until 1 pm.  Things get underway at 10 with a welcome and presentation by Brock dramatic arts students from the third-year class Studies in Praxis - Theatre Criticism, followed at 10:30 by the first panel discussion of the day, "Bloggers, critics and cultural legitimation" with some heavy hitters as participants:

- Jill Dolan
- Dr. Karen Fricker (chair)
- Andy Horwitz (respondent)
- J. Kelly Nestruck, lead theatre critic, The Globe and Mail
- Richard Ouzounian, lead theatre critic, Toronto Star
- Holger Syme, chair, Department of English and Drama, University of Toronto at Mississauga, and blogger (disposito.net)
- Odette Yazbeck, director of public relations, Shaw Festival

Finally, the colloquium wrap-up will take place from 12:15 to 1 pm, with participants Maddy Costa; Jill Dolan; Karen Fricker (chair); Rosemary Drage Hale, director of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Brock University; and Andy Horwitz.

So, how do you plan to spend your Friday and Saturday this weekend?  If you care about the arts in general and theatre in particular as I do, you know where you'll be!  I don't know how much my schedule will allow, but I will make every effort to get to as many of the discussions as possible.

For me personally it has been a true love affair with the arts for almost 40 years now, from the early days as a precocious young broadcaster in the 70s when I was a member of both the Toronto Drama Bench and the Canadian Theatre Critics Association, to now as I love to celebrate the arts in this space on a regular basis.  For how much longer I will be actively involved in reporting on the arts remains to be seen, as I no longer have a commercial media outlet at which to hang my hat, but we'll see how the upcoming season progresses.

Raise the curtain and furrow your collective brows...The Changing Face of Theatre Criticism in the Digital Age is about to begin...I can hardly wait!

February 20th, 2014.