San Francisco International Arts Festival & San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle to Host Panel Discussion

Co-Hosted by the San Francisco International Arts Festival and the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. One of a number of free educational and complementary gatherings held as part of this year's Festival. This event is staged to coincide with the opening night of Pan Pan Theatre from the Republic of Ireland later at 8:00pm the same evening.

In some ways the 24 hour news cycle has taken us full circle. Past era films such as "All About Eve" and "Valley of the Dolls" had parts of the plot with the cast waiting for the morning papers to come out so they could read the reviews the very next day after opening night?

Then there came to a period of time when it took two or three days for a review to appear as the newspaper business changed. Now with the printed medium becoming somewhat obsolete and websites covering events in real time it is almost like we are back to a period when reviews can be published almost as fast as they can be written.

What will this do for the future of theatre criticism? Will the quality of coverage go down or is this a good thing that will enhance theatre criticism? What role will social media play in it?

An August panel of Bay Area theatre critics and editors take to the stage to answer these and other questions and predict the future of the business of reviewing theatre. Panelists include Randy McMullen (Bay Area News Group), Leba Hertz (SF Chronicle), Karen d'Souza (San Jose Mercury), John Wilkins (KQED), Barry Willis (Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle), Rob Hurwitt (SF Chronicle, emeritus), Charlise Tiee (Opera Tattler) and Keli Dailey. Moderated by Velina Brown of the San Francisco Mime Troupe.