Gingold Theatrical Group Continues SHAW NEW YORK, 6/2

Gingold Theatrical Group -- which launched its first SHAW NEW YORK festival with a revival of Shaw's comedic masterpiece, MAN AND SUPERMAN, as a co-production with The Irish Repertory Theatre, and directed by GTG Artistic Director David Staller – continues SHAW NEW YORK with a SHAW CRITIC SYMPOSIUM at 2pm and SHAW CONCERT at 8pm – on Saturday, June 2 at The Players Club (16 Gramercy Park South) in Manhattan.

The first SHAW NEW YORK CRITIC SYMPOSIUM will focus on arts journalism in the New York area. The event involves a discussion regarding how arts critics and journalists envision the future of arts journalism with ever-changing venues. The springboard topic will be "Are Critics Necessary?"

Among critics and journalists scheduled to join the discussion are: David Cote, Joe Dziemanowicz, Michael Feingold, Adam Feldman, Michael Riedel, Michael Sommers, Rob Weinert-Kendt, Elisabeth Vincentelli and Linda Winer. The discussion will be moderated by Jeffrey Eric Jenkins of NYU.

As Shaw began his career in the arts first as a music, and then, dramatic critic (before becoming a playwright), he maintained that journalists view their work as an art form in itself. In his book. "Advice to a Young Critic," Shaw wrote:

"There is no way of 'becoming' a dramatic critic. It happens by accident and it usually happens to some sort of journalist who probably writes about anything but the theatre. Remember: to be a critic you must also have literary skill-and trained critical skill, too. The power of analysis, comparison, and so forth. As to what to read, read anything you feel curious about. It's quite possible that your real interest may not lie in the theatre at all. But in any case, read dramatic literature, not histories or criticisms of it. Read three of four of the most famous plays of Moliere and Victor Hugo. Sample Beaumarchais, Voltaire, De Musset, Augier and Dumas fils until you know their styles. Read all of Goethe's plays and a lot of Schiller's. Read a rhymed play of Dryden's a play of Wycherley's some of Congreve's, several of Sheridan, a Boucicault and a Robertson. Read Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Read Ibsen all through. Also any memoirs of actors that you can unearth or can't avoid. That will do for a beginning. Read all the great critics. Get a ticket for the British Museum reading room and live there as much as you can. Go to all the first-rate orchestral concerts and to the opera, as well as to the theaters. Join debating societies and learn to speak in public. Study men and politics. Finally, since I have given you all this advice, I add this crowning precept, the most valuable of all: Never Take Anybody's Advice."

For more information about this symposium please contact: Gingold Theatrical Group at 212-355-7823 or info@gingoldgroup.com.