Rethinking Theater Criticism Conference Will Take Place in Washington D.C. This Month

Join critics, editors, producers, actors, directors, funders, and the theater community for a conference, Rethinking Theater Criticism, Saturday, February 18 and Saturday, February 25, 2023 to understand and envision the future of theatrical criticism. All events are free; advance registration is required for some sessions.

Attend one of three free theater criticism workshops offered within the conference. Advanced registration required and space is limited to ensure all attendees have opportunities to interact with instructor.

Join leading practitioners in practical, hands-on, sessions considering review of theater. During each session the teacher will articulate her/his process of developing reviews and discuss sample reviews.

Attendance is capped at 10 to ensure interaction with the teacher.

PLEASE NOTE: The workshops led by Peter Marks and Celia Wren will occur in person 10:30-noon at Studio Acting Conservatory on Holmead Place in Columbia Heights. The workshop led by Nicole Hertvik will occur at MLK Library, 916 G St NW, WDC.

These FREE workshops are offered within Day Eight's 2023 arts journalism conference, Re-Thinking Theater Criticism. The conference is produced in partnership with DC Theater Arts, Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theatre, Round House Theater, Signature Theatre, Mosaic Theater, Studio Theater, Gala Hispanic Theater, Studio Acting Conservatory, The DC Line, and DCTrending and through support from HumanitiesDC and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. To see additional conference details visit: DayEight.org.

ABout The Workshop Leaders

Peter Marks joined The Washington Post as its chief drama critic in 2002. Previously, he worked for more than nine years at the New York Times, where he was a drama critic, theater reporter, metro reporter and national correspondent during the 2000 presidential campaign. He was also a feature writer and reporter at Newsday, where he was a member of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting. He started his career at the New Brunswick (N.J.) Home News and also worked for the Star-Ledger and Bergen Record, other New Jersey papers. He has chaired the Pulitzer Prize drama jury four times and is co-author of the book "Good for the Money: My Fight to Pay Back America," published by St. Martin's Press.

Celia Wren is a freelance arts journalist who covers theater regularly for the Washington Post. Her articles about culture and books have also appeared in the New York Times, the Village Voice, Newsday, the Boston Globe, the New York Observer, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and Smithsonian, among other publications. She is a former managing editor of American Theatre and a longtime TV and media critic for Commonweal. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Nicole Hertvik is editor-in-chief and publisher of DC Theater Arts, Washington, D.C.'s only website dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the area theater community. Nicole is a contributing writer to DCTA, and a freelance writer covering the arts in the Washington, D.C. region. She holds a B.A. in English, a Masters Degree in international affairs from Columbia University, was a 2019 National Critics Institute fellow at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, and a member of CUNY's Newmark Journalism School's 2022 Entrepreneurial Journalism cohort. She lives in Maryland with her three daughters, two bunnies, and one very patient husband. Within the 2023 conference, Nicole led design of the conference's New Theater Critics program.

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