Just a note to say that The Feminist Spectator
blog won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for
2010-2011. I’m delighted by this
honor. The Feminist Spectator is the
first blog ever to receive the award in its 56 year history, and I’m only the
seventh woman to win in the history of the award. The last woman so honored was my friend and
colleague Alisa Solomon, who won for her book Re-dressing the Canon: Essays on
Gender and Theatre in 1998. I
attended Alisa’s celebration party at PS122 that year, and remember the pride I
felt in her accomplishment. I’m thrilled
to be joining her and so many other critics and writers I admire in this
distinguished company.
Other recent award winners include Charles
McNulty (chief theatre critic at the LA
Times), Marc Robinson (for his book The
American Play), Randy Gener (for his writing at American Theatre), H. Scott McMillin (for his book The Musical as Drama), and Ray Knapp
(for his book The American Musical and
the Formation of National Identity).
The prize is adjudicated by the chairs of the English Departments at
Cornell, Yale, and Princeton, though Cornell administers the award.
Karen Fricker wrote a lovely post in her theatre blog at The Guardian about the
significance of my award, noting that Nathan award's history of gender imbalance “might
reflect the field’s demographics, [but] it does nonetheless prompt questioning
about why criticism is still largely perceived and practiced as a man’s game,
when the accomplishments of Dolan and other leaders in the field . . . prove
that turning out incisive, engaging critical prose about what happens on a
stage does not require a Y chromosome.”
The significance of the Nathan award going to a
blog has also been remarked by various commentators. London-based theatre critic Mark Shenton, on
his blog Shenton’s View, suggests that “the web can also usefully provide a
forum for critics to do their work away from the commercial and space
restraints that typically operate in newspapers.” Shenton discusses the recent firing of
long-time Village Voice film critic
J. Hoberman as an example of the sad state of contemporary arts criticism, and says
that Hoberman has responded to his ouster by announcing that he’ll start a
blog. Shenton also notes that Howard
Kissel, who once wrote for the New York
Daily News, now regularly contributes his criticism to the online
Huffington Post.
Clearly, there’s a lot to say about the state of
theatre and arts criticism. I’m hoping
to sponsor a panel discussion about gender and criticism, and about blogging as
a forum for criticism, as part of my Nathan award celebration. Save Saturday,
April 28, tentatively planned as the date for an event here
in Princeton. Details forthcoming.
Meanwhile, I want to take the opportunity of the
award to thank those of you who read this blog.
When I first started writing The Feminist Spectator (seven years ago
this August), I felt like I was sending words out in the void, happy to see
them move off my private screen but unsure where and with whom they might
land. Learning that so many of you read
the blog, and engaging your comments and quarrels, gives me great pleasure, and
encourages me about people’s desire to engage long-form, generative arts criticism.
I’m so grateful for the critical community your
reading creates for my writing.
The Feminist Spectator
Congratulations, well deserved. I read your blog as frequently as possible. I'm glad your criticism is highly regarded by your peers.
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